The parents of several children admitted under the RTE quota in a city school have been asked by the school authorities to pay the transport fees, as the primary school functioned 14 km away from their pre-primary centre. While the pre-primary centre is at Cox Town, the primary school is at Kadusonapannahalli.

A parent of a class one student, who was asked to pay ₹25,000 a year, has approached the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for intervention. He said his son had been admitted under the RTE quota in Oasis International School. “We admitted our son in the school at Cox Town. But after LKG and UKG, they told us that we would have to pay for transport at the Kadusonapannahalli school. My house is at Chinnappa Garden and I would have to pay close to ₹25,000 as transport fees, which is just not possible given the means that we have.”

Sources in the Department of Public Instruction said parents were also initially asked to pay tuition fees for 2017–18 academic year. The reason given was that the Education Department would not be able to provide reimbursement to students under the quota as the process had been centralised.

Parents approached RTE task force convener Nagasimha G. Rao who forwarded their complaint to the commission. “If the department does not respond, we will fight this legally on behalf of the parents,” he said.

School authorities, when contacted on Wednesday morning, said students would not have pay the tuition fees, but had to pay the transport fees. Later in the evening, they said they would not have to pay transport fees either.