Some schools affiliated to the Unaided School Forum have said that they will not be registering for admissions under the 25 per cent reservation quota of the Right to Education (RTE) Act as the government has failed to pay the arrears for admissions they had conducted in the past two years.
While the forum has said that all of their 250 institutions face similar problems, the Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti (ASBS) that is spearheading the struggle of parents from economically weaker section of the society to get admission in some of these schools have said that non-payment of dues by government is just an excuse by the USF as they are losing out on making money through donations for the said seats.
According to S.C. Kedia, secretary of USF, the government had not paid them for admissions done in the 2013-14 and 2014-15, as a result of which they are being forced to boycott school registration for the online RTE admissions. “We are not denying RTE admissions but only need a written assurance from the government regarding pending reimbursement of 34 per cent for 2013-14 and 60 per cent for 2014-15,” said Mr Kedia, adding that he was only speaking on behalf of his school Shree Gaurishankar Kedia English School at Andheri and not the other schools of the forum.
Under the RTE admissions clause, private schools have to reserve 25 per cent of their intake capacity for children from economically weaker section (EWS) to ensure that they have access to quality education too. The clause further puts the onus of footing the costs of the students on the state government, which the forum alleges has not been complied with.
However, the ASBS has rubbished the claims of the USF and said that they are using the non-reimbursement of arrears as an excuse to not take part in the RTE admission process.
“The unaided schools collect huge amounts as donations and reserving 25 per cent of their total seats puts a dent in their collections, hence they are making such an excuse. The government is bound to pay them and will remit the amount sooner or later,” said Sudhir Paranjpe, convenor of the ASBS.
According to sources in the education department, the USF had been invited for discussions and had been assured of payment of arrears soon.
“The assurances notwithstanding, if we are not going to receive the arrears, the forum will approach the court and file a contempt petition against the government for not complying with an earlier order wherein the court had asked the government to pay the arrears to unaided schools that admitted students under the RTE admission clause in the past couple of years,” said Mr Kedia.
