Thaindian News

Agartala, Jan 17 (IANS) The Left Front government in Tripura will not follow the central government’s guidelines for school admissions as the state is yet to pass the necessary laws, officials said Monday.”The Tripura government has decided to follow the prevailing norms of lottery system for admission and the children would be admitted according to their or guardians’ preference (of school),” Principal Secretary for School Education Banamali Sinha told reporters here.

Under the new Right to Education Act and the central government regulations for mandatory education for children between 6-14 years up to the eighth standard, the students would be allowed admission to schools that fall within one kilometre of their houses.

“The students’ or the guardians’ preference of schools for admission have been barred in the new regulations,” Sinha added.

According to the official, the act has so far been executed only in four states - Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

“The state cabinet would finalise a regulation under the new education act and central regulations and then it would be implemented,” Sinha said.

The Tripura government has, however, decided to give school uniforms and textbooks free of cost to the students from class one to eight under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), according to the central government regulations.

The central government has, under the SSA, provided Rs.23 crore to the state government to expand the facilities and building infrastructure and that would benefit over 500,000 students in 4,000 schools in Tripura.