(This story originally appeared in on Oct 09, 2019)

NEW DELHI: Delhi and Tamil Nadu spent the highest amount per child per year to ensure the underprivileged got to study in private schools under the Right to Education Act. In a report titled The Bright Spots, NGO Indus Action said that Tamil Nadu spent Rs 25,000- 33,000 for the purpose for different classes, while Delhi spent Rs 26,908 on a primary student and Rs 26,708 for a student in the upper primary classes. The lowest spending was by Madhya Pradesh at Rs 4,419.Ten years after the implementation of the provisions for admission of economically weaker and disadvantaged sections in private schools under Section 12 (1)(C) of RTE Act 2009 , 33 states had notified the reservation of 25% seats in private school for the EWS/DG categories. Of them, 17 states have declared the amount they spent per child, and only Tamil Nadu and Delhi have spent over 25,000 per child per annum, said the recent report.In Madhya Pradesh, private schools’ participation rate in the implementation of the reservation was above 99%. It was 69.7% in Delhi and 75.3% in Tamil Nadu. The lowest was 12.7% in Karnataka , with Uttar Pradesh just above it at 23.4%.However, while the allotment of funds was high in Tamil Nadu and Delhi, the process of reimbursing money to the private schools was slower in both the states than in Rajasthan. In Delhi, the report said, the reimbursement rate was 54.5% and in Tamil Nadu 39.4%. Rajasthan reported 100% reimbursement rate.The report cited schools to say that the reluctance to implement the reservation policy was due to the delay in reimbursement. “A private school incurs cost per child, varying on schools’ expenditures and the scales, which are not accounted for in the reimbursement process,” the report said.The reason for delays in governments not releasing funds in time, the report surmised, could be “lack of clarity regarding norms for making claims and non-submission of supporting documents”. The successful reimbursement process in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is attributed to the creation of systems that provide real time data on admissions at the state, district and block levels.In the decade since the RTE Act was implemented, over 40 lakh children have gained admission and are studying under the provision across India. “Our aim is to have enrolled one million underprivileged children in private schools by 2020,” said Traun Cherukuri, founder and CEO, Indus Action.