Nagpur: To curb misuse of the free school admission scheme under Right to Education (RTE) Act, the state govt has decided to increase the scrutiny of income documents submitted by parents. One of the categories for free admissions to private schools is ‘economically weaker section’, for which parents have to submit proof of their income. Many parents submit an “income certificate” issued by district authorities, which can be obtained even on the basis of an affidavit.It is suspected that many parents, even those who are financially extremely well-off, avail of this free admission scheme under EWS. MoS (school education) Pankaj Bhoyar on Saturday said from this year such income submissions will be scrutinized minutely. Answering a query from a principal during the Q&A session at Times Principals Conclave (TPC), Bhoyar said, “This year we took a decision that all such documents will be cross checked. This will be done well before the child is allotted a school for admission.”While Bhoyar did not elaborate on what methods will be used to verify the documents, the recent increase in use of technology powered by artificial intelligence to detect fraud may be used.
