RTE admissions up, but are the poor going to school?

CHENNAI: From 49,800 in 2013, the number of students admitted under the Right to Education (RTE) quota has shot up to 1.19 lakh in 2017. This number is expected to increase further as record number of applications were made by parents to get their children enrolled in matriculation schools. There has been a 60% increase in the figures compared to the previous year and government is expected to increase its spending accordingly.
But is the RTE Act actually benefiting the poor? Educationists, activists and schools have their reservations.



According to Tamil Nadu RTE rules, 25% of the total seats in private schools are reserved for students belonging to economically weaker sections (families with an annual income of less than Rs 2 lakh) and disadvantaged groups (SC/ST/BC/MBC).

A vast majority of these reserved seats are taken by the latter. “These candidates are expected to submit a copy of their community certificate and not their income certificate,” said V Eswaran from MDMK, who has been fighting for effective implementation of RTE.

“Using this loophole, many parents, despite being affluent, apply for RTE seats. Consequently, the poor candidates are left in the lurch. Andhra Pradesh has created subdivisions for these two groups to prevent misuse,” he added.

One such case came up for hearing at the Madras high court after a school denied admission to a candidate belonging to BC community after the parents refused to submit an income certificate. The court rejected the plea of the parents and told the government to frame income limits even for disadvantaged group candidates seeking RTE admission. But the government is yet to act.

“The government does not retrospectively check if the funds are actually reaching the deserving candidates and given the rate at which the demand for RTE admissions has increased, the state will soon be in a fix as more funds will be required for reimbursing fees of students from 10 different batches,” said educationist Prince Gajendra Babu.

Ashok Shankar, from Tamil Nadu CBSE Schools Management Association said even claims of those belonging to the weaker sections of the society were not genuine nine out of 10 times. “All it takes is a walk to the nearest revenue office and get an income certificate (of Rs 96,000 pa) stating that they are self-employed or work in the unorganised sector,” he said. “There is no verification done. The government should be more vigil if it is willing to implement RTE effectively,” he added.

Responding to this, a school education department official said they did crosscheck the genuineness of documents and found that false claims worth Rs 5 crore were submitted. “We have recovered the amount. There is nothing legally wrong about disadvantaged groups claiming admissions under RTE. Not all of them are from well-off families. But creating sub-groups is a government decision,” the official said.