Schools may not reopen on due date

Unaided schools in the city and state have said that they will not be reopening on the scheduled June 15 date as the government has failed to reimburse the fees for the students admitted under 25 per cent reservation quota of the Right to Education (RTE) Act for the past three years. The schools have also said that apart from the reimbursement they also want the amount to be brought at par with what is being paid per student in government run schools. The schools have written to the school education department regarding the same and are awaiting a response from them.

Rajendra Singh, president of the Federation of Private Unaided Schools Association of Maharashtra said that in the absence of reimbursements it was becoming extremely difficult for the schools to continue operations. “Numerous unaided schools have refused to accept admissions under the RTE quota for the academic year 2016-17 due to non-payment of arrears. Rather than paying the arrears the state derecognised many of them,” said Mr Singh.

He further added, “As the cost of running the school has gone up and the government is not showing any haste in paying the arrears, the private unaided schools across the state are left with no option but to keep the schools shut. We have written to the education department informing them about our decision. If there is still no response, we will be forced to keep the schools shut,” said Mr Singh.

While principal secretary of school education Nand Kumar was unreachable for comment, an official said that the reimbursement file of the schools was forwarded to the finance department and their response was awaited.