Admission of poor students from rural areas in metro cities To ensure better efficiency and promote transparency in admission process, the Central Universities funded by the UGC have been directed to put in place an Online Admission System". The Government has also undertaken various student financial assistance schemes such as Comprehensive Educational Loan Scheme, tuition fee waiver scheme, Scholarships schemes to ensure that no deserving student in the Country is deprived of higher education for want of finances. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has notified UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012 wherein it has been made mandatory for all the Universities to appoint an Ombudsman for redressal of grievances relating to unfair practices in admission etc. Various Common Admission Tests such as Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), etc. are conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to ensure merit based admission. Reservation in admission of the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes (non-creamy layer) of citizens to certain Central Educational Institutions is mandated by the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. The Right to Education Act, 2009 mandates that all private un-aided schools shall admit children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood in Class I (or pre-school as the case may be) to the extent of at least 25 percent of the strength of that class and provide free and compulsory elementary education to them till its completion. The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Governments in the field of education has set up a Committee to draft legislation to prevent and prohibit adoption of unfair practices in school education sector. Section 31 and 32 of the RTE Act provides for monitoring by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCRs) and redressal of grievances by the local authorities relating to rights of a child under the RTE Act. This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
