Bengaluru: The State Government is mulling to discontinue reimbursement of fees to private schools under the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009. The Government had made it compulsory to admit 25 percent of the poor students to private schools and was reimbursing the fees to the schools under the  RTE Act.

Now that the Government is planning to stop the reimbursement, the private school managements are in a fix. The Government in the guise of forming a new Education Policy is planning to place the policy proposals before the next Cabinet meeting before being enacted into a Law.

This session will be the last one of the current Congress Government.

During the 2017-18 Budget presentation, the new School Education Policy will be announced. This policy will include all the rules including RTE said, Commissioner of Public Instruction P.C. Jaffer.

It is better to withdraw RTE Act. The poor students are not getting any benefits under this Act. Since the well-established schools with all facilities come under the Minority Department, only the schools without basic facilities provide admissions under the RTE Act. Hence, the purpose of this Act has completely failed. By improving the quality of government schools, the poor children can be provided good education.

— Kautilya R. Raghu, Chairman, Kautilya Vidyalaya, Mysuru

 

If the Government withdraws fees reimbursement then most of the private schools who are admitting poor students under the RTE Act will not be able to pay salaries to the teachers. For instance in our own school when we admit students to LKG and UKG under the RTE quota there is a big gap of nearly Rs.8,000 to Rs. 9,000 that we have to bear as the Government pays just about Rs.11,000 to Rs. 16,000 per student whereas the admission fee that we have to charge is much more. When it comes to private schools with most modern facilities and who charge heavy fees accordingly, they will be in real trouble. However, the schools run by the Minority Institutions do not come under this Act. The Government cannot also scrap the Right To Education Act as it is an Act of the Central Government. The only option left for the private schools is to go to Court.

—R. Vasudev Bhat, Hon. Secretary, Vijaya Vittala Educational Institutions

 

Fortunately our school is not much affected as it is a charitable institution and we run it under the State Board. I strongly feel that if the RTE goes to genuine beneficiaries then such problems will not arise. If the standard of education in Government schools improve, then the economically weaker section would prefer to send their wards to such schools than to fancy schools charging exorbitant fees. There are people who have borrowed huge sums of money to start schools for buying sites and constructing fancy buildings. There will be problems for such institutions if the fees are not reimbursed.

—P.S. Ganapathy, Hon. Secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB), Mysuru