Haryana’s 381 “budget” private schools—mostly in villages or small towns—have offered 24,987 seats for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students. (Representational File Photo)Haryana’s 381 “budget” private schools—mostly in villages or small towns—have offered 24,987 seats for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students of government schools for which the state will reimburse their fee of Rs 700/1100 per student.
This will be under “Chief Minister Equal Education Relief, Assistance and Grant (Cheerag)” scheme which has been introduced in place of a similar scheme introduced by Hooda government in 2007 under rule 134 A of Haryana School Education Rules, 2003.
Under the scheme, students’ whose parents have annual verified income of less than Rs 1.8 lakh can take admission in private schools from class II to XII.
CM Manohar Lal Khattar Wednesday said that under this scheme the government will give Rs. 700 per student from classes II to V, Rs 900 per student from classes VI to VIII and Rs 1100 per student from classes IX to XII.
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The Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in 2007 had introduced a provision to give admission to meritorious children from EWS of the society in private schools. The idea was that at least 25% of the total strength of private schools would consist of students from this quota and they would be provided education free of cost. To make this provision, rule 134 A was incorporated in the Haryana School Education Rules, 2003. In 2009, this percentage of 25 was reduced to 10.
The BJP government, which came to power in 2014, had agreed to compensate private schools Rs 200-600 per student, following protests by the owners of these schools. Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gurjar had informed the Assembly that under 134-A Rule, an amount of Rs 70.31 crore has been given to private schools for reimbursement since the academic year 2015-16. He had added, “A total of 66,495 students applied for admission under Rule 134-A this year – 55,029 from private schools and 11,466 from government schools. It is clear that most of the students studying in private schools are taking advantage of Rule 134-A, whereas this provision was made for the benefit of poor but meritorious students studying in government schools.”
Officials said that the state government had already adopted the Right to Free and Compulsory Child Education Act-2009. “The provision of rule 134A was at variance with the RTE Act. In rule 134A, there is a provision of admission for only 10 per cent of total students while the RTE Act has a provision for 25 per cent. So, one of the two provisions had to be corrected. That is why 134A was dropped in March this year,” a senior officer said.
But facing flak from the Opposition, the government has introduced a scheme almost similar to 134A which has been named as Cheerag. Apart from introducing Cheerag scheme, officials say a separate provision has been made to provide free education to children of weaker section studying in Class I or previous classes on 25 percent seats in all recognized private schools under RTE Act.
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