After issuing an order allocating Rs. 97.05 crore towards reimbursement of fee to private schools that have admitted students under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the government has started collecting details of students admitted under the Act.
As per the Act, 25 per cent of the total seats must be allotted to children from disadvantaged groups/weaker sections and the fee remittance would be shared by the State and Central governments. Though the admission process started two years ago, the Central government had not provided its share. Schools had protested the delay saying they would not admit students this year.
While the Central government allows for reimbursement from Standard I for a student, the State government has gone one step further and has included admission to LKG/UKG classes also. Director of Matriculation Schools R. Pitchai said, “We have already started collecting details of students admitted in all private schools across the State.”
The process of reimbursement has started in Coimbatore, which has the largest number of private schools. While Coimbatore city has 275 private schools of which 34 are minority-run institutions, the Nilgiris has 63 matriculation schools, including 12 minority institutions. The minority schools are exempted from the Act.
The government claims that more than 1.36 lakh students were admitted in private schools in the past two years under the RTE Act quota with Coimbatore accounting for the maximum admissions.
Inspector of Matriculation Schools (Coimbatore and the Nilgiris) R. Geetha said schools had been instructed to submit reimbursement claims for students admitted in the past two years. The process would likely be completed in a couple of days and reimbursement, based on the fee level prescribed by Justice S.R. Singaravelu-led Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, is set to commence by month-end.
Allegations
There are, however, allegations that almost all private schools in the State have passed off students from economically well-off families as being admitted under the RTE, alleges Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) State youth wing secretary V. Eswaran, who filed a Right to Information inquiry on RTE Act admissions.
He wants a thorough scrutiny of all admissions in private schools before reimbursing. “We learnt that only a few students had qualified to be admitted under the rules specified in G.O. No. 60. The Act fixed an annual income limit of Rs. 2 lakh for parents to qualify for the quota but many applicants had declared higher income level, sometimes as much as Rs. 7 lakh,” he said.
