Right to Education

reimbursements

government resolution

IESA

PMC

A recent resolution regarding the(RTE) Act states that if a school has benefitted from the state government for land, no reimbursement will be given for the 25 per cent admissions under the act. Now, private school owners have written to state government to remove the clause as they feel the government is trying to squeeze its way out of givingIn a recent(GR), the state government changed many norms related to RTE and its reimbursement, which mentions that if a private school is using any government land and benefitting from the same then the school would not receive reimbursement for students who have been admitted in 25 per cent RTE quota applicable for families belonging to below poverty line.Santosh Gaikwad, under-secretary of school education department mentioned in the GR, “The reimbursement of RTE quota to schools will now be online to stop any malpractices. At district level, every education officer will check the number of students admitted and verify the same. At the same time, schools which have been given government land on lease will not get the RTE reimbursement.”Private schools owners under the umbrella Independent English School Association (IESA) have written a letter to the state education department regarding removal of the clause. While there are over thousand schools in the state under, at least 20 per cent of them are using government land since long.Rajendra Singh, state president of IESA, said, “While there has been always a delay in the RTE payment, state government is now finding ways for non-payment of the RTE reimbursement amount. There is no connection between the government land and school fees. While the land has been issued by government much before, schools need to spend on 25 per cent of the RTE students every year.”Another committee member of IESA, Jagruti Dharmadhikari, said, “There are many things which schools need to look after like staff salary, infrastructure, monthly bills. Clauses like these will affect private schools. Also, there is no clause in RTE act regarding government land and there is no point introducing it now.”Sangeeta Pawar from Jawahar English Medium School, which is built on land leased from the, said, “There was no need to introduce this clause. On one hand we are not getting RTE money on time and on the other hand such clauses are being introduced. It will be extremely difficult for private schools to survive in in such a situation. We are using the government land since 2009 and have always been paid the rent on time.”Singh added that the association has sent the letter in protest against the clause and said they will approach the court if the government does not revoke the resolution.