JAIPUR: Thousands of school operators protested in front of district headquarters on Monday against the due amount under Right to Education (RTE). According to school operators the government has to pay around Rs 800 crore (pending for two years) to more than 50,000 schools. These schools are of small and medium economic capacity.
Anil Sharma, president of School Shiksha Pariwar explained, “We are fed up of government’s lackadaisical attitude. We are teaching students free-of-cost under government program and now government is not paying us on time. We want a quick solution to this problem. Government has always given us false promises.”
School authorities which are already facing financial problems due to lockdown and non-payment of fees by the parents now have to struggle to get money under RTE. Sharma said that government recently told them that they will not pay RTE money for the year 2020 as the schools are under lockdown. This did not go down well with the association.
“When the court had ordered to let parents pay 70% of school fees then why is government denying us our rights. It is sheer injustice. We are providing them services in the form of online classes, the government must give us our money,” said Sharma.
School education minister Govind Singh Dotasra agreed to meet the school authorities after two days. A letter has been sent to the association members. Now the association has called all their district in-charges to Jaipur after which they will meet the minister. If the problem is not resolved, then another protest will be organised in January.