The State has started the process of disbursal of funds to reimburse schools for fees of 25% seats reserved under the Right to Education Act, 2009, for needy students. The remaining dues will be cleared by March, Education Minister Vinod Tawde has said.
However, private unaided schools plan to continue their boycott of the admission process for the reserved seats till all the outstanding payments are cleared.
Mr. Tawde said the government had disbursed ₹154.20 crore of the ₹302.48 it owed to schools across the State for RTE admissions over the past five years. Of the remaining ₹148.28 crore, he said ₹30 crore will be sought from the State Finance Department, while the Minister will try to re-appropriate funds for the rest. He said that all the outstanding payments would be cleared by March, and urged schools to cooperate with the government.
S.C. Kedia, secretary of the Unaided Schools Forum, claimed that the outstanding amount was as high as ₹800 crore. He said the State’s figure is much lower because it calculates the expenses on students only at the entry point, and not as they move on to higher standards of education.
In Mumbai
The fate of admissions to over 7,000 seats in Mumbai is undecided, as over 334 private schools are yet to be paid.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is the nodal agency to handle the admissions under RTE, said it will clear the dues for only three years as of now. “About ₹13.65 crore is to be paid to the 334 schools for the past five years. The office of the Deputy Director of Education recently received ₹6.49 crore, which shall be disbursed to schools within a fortnight. The rest shall be cleared after March 2018,” Mahesh Palkar, BMC Education Officer, told The Hindu.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Education) Milind Sawant said schools who fail to participate in the RTE admission process could lose their registrations. But he said it was too early to assess if the boycott had affected the admission process. “The admissions are on schedule, and meant to get over by January 25,” he said.
In a circular issued on January 16, the State had warned schools that if they fail to register for the admission process or to admit students allotted seats, they could be penalised and even lose their registrations.
‘Won’t budge’
Bharat Malik, former president of the Private Unaided School Management Association (PUSMA), said, “Some schools did receive funds, but it is still not clear about when all dues will be cleared. We shall not budge from our stand, and will continue the boycott till the last rupee is granted.” PUSMA and other private school organisations have formed a federation to protest against the payment delay.
Meanwhile, a survey of about 122 government schools in eight districts conducted by the Bal Hakk Abhiyaan, a project of Child Rights and You, has revealed that the schools have failed to comply with basic infrastructural parameters under the RTE Act. The schools don’t have libraries, playgrounds, clean toilets, running water in toilets and filtered water. In 69 % of the surveyed schools, the teachers or students would have to clean the toilets.
“If the State were to sincerely implement the RTE Act, there would be no disparity between private and government schools and it would reduce out-of-school students. But instead, the State wants to close down government schools to benefit private schools,” said Sudharkar Kshirsagar, State convener of the BHA.
