With the Right To Education (RTE) Act mandating compulsory reservation of 25 per cent of seats in private unaided schools for children belonging to economically and socially backward groups, schools a
With the Right To Education (RTE) Act mandating compulsory reservation of 25 per cent of seats in private unaided schools for children belonging to economically and socially backward groups, schools are heading straight to the Mantralaya to get themselves a minority status. According to officials, since the implementation of the RTE Act in the state there has been a spurt in school managements wanting to earn a minority status as such institutions do not come under the purview of the Act.
An official from the minority affairs department said, “The school managements want to get the minority status on one pretext or the other. With the exception of Marathi medium schools, managements are claiming to be minority status on the basis of religious minority or language.”
In 2010, following representations from various minority organisations the HRD ministry issued guidelines clarifying Section 35 (1) of the RTE Act. It said: ‘Institutions including Madrasas and Vedic Pathshalas especially serving religious and linguistic minorities are protected under Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution. The RTE Act does not come in the way of continuance of such institutions or the rights of the children in such institutions.’
The official said as the private schools do not want to offer seats to the socially and economically backward section of the society under the 25 per cent reservation of the RTE Act they are opting for minority status under HRD ministry guidelines.
However, an official from a minority institution explained, “Under the RTE Act, schools that admit students under the 25 per cent reservation cannot recover fees from students and the amount towards the education of the child is to be remitted by the government. But, as the government does not remit the amount on time, schools find it difficult to continue their operations, hence they are trying to escape the reservation rule by opting for minority status.”
In-charge deputy director of education B.B. Chavan said, “Once the schools gets minority status they can refuse to admit students under the RTE Act and the same has been safeguarded by the Supreme Court in its 2014 order too,” said Mr Chavan.
In 2014 a three-judge bench had upheld that the constitutional rights of minority institutions could not be superseded by the RTE Act.
