Even before educational institutions are officially directed to conduct admissions for the weaker sections, as under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009), activists have begun lining up outside schools demanding that poor students be taken in. Given that the government is yet to spell out how and when the schools should implement the 25% quota, expertsadvise activists against undue haste.

Bhubaneswar: School and mass education minister Pratap Jena on Tuesday said that special strategies and plan of action were being taken up to implement the Right to Education Campaign-2012 and it was decided to finalise the District Plan for the RTE campaign by June 5. Briefing newsmen here, Jena said that core committees would be formed in all district project offices and the first meeting as to how to carry out the campaign to create awareness to mobilise students to schools would be held by June 5 and by this time.

With the Union Cabinet not taking up the much-anticipated amendments in the Lokpal Bill on Thursday, the fate of the anti-corruption legislation is now in a limbo. UPA strategists had earlier decided to bring a couple of amendments in the legislation and place it for passage in the Rajya Sabha after getting the Cabinet approval, but some points of disagreements still remain.

City schools are caught in a catch-22 situation. The state government’s latest announcement that 25% of the student strength will have to comprise those from weaker and disadvantaged sections from this year itself has caught them off guard. Since most schools were expecting that the 25% provision will be implemented only from 2013, they did not keep aside seats for poor students. Many such schools claim that they will not be able to take in more than four to five students through this reservation this year.

Encouraged by usage of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, the government has decided to set up a state of-the-art call centre and an interactive website to facilitate easy exchange of information related to the transparency law to citizens. The project was envisaged after taking insights from a government study which highlighted inconvenience faced by citizens in exercising their rights to information.