Private schools miffed with govt’s RTE reimbursement amount offer

Times of India: Pune: Tuesday, January 02, 2018.

Two days after the government announced the new reimbursement amount per child admitted under the Right to Education Act, private school association on Monday said the quoted figure was "too low" and "useless" as many institutes were yet to get any compensation since 2012.

The education department has quoted the per child reimbursement at Rs 17,000 for 2016-17, while the private schools feel the amount, "if correctly configured", would be around Rs 45,000.

The Right to Education Act, 2009 ensures reservation of 25% seats in entry-level classes at all primary schools for children belonging to socially and economically disadvantaged category.

These children are supposed to get free-of-cost education till they reach Class VIII and the government is supposed to reimburse the fees to the private schools for teaching them.

The reimbursement is fixed by calculating the average of money spent per child in a government school or the fee per child taken by a school, whichever is less.

"The problem is that the government only calculates the teachers' salary as expenditure and then averages it to calculate the money spent on every child. It does not take into account the infrastructure, electricity and resources such as books and uniform, for which the schools spend on a child's education. If the government factors in all these components, the amount will be near Rs 45,000 per child," Independent English Schools' Association secretary Rajendra Singh said.

The government, in a notification on December 30, fixed the reimbursement amount at Rs 17,670. It said the schools who have admitted students in 2016-17 will be able to take benefit of the amount.

The associations have decided not to register their schools for the next round of RTE admissions this year. "We have filed an RTI to understand the process of calculating the reimbursement amount. Besides, 50% of the schools are yet to get any reimbursement for the admissions in 2012. Those who were reimbursed received around 40% of the total amount pending from 2012" Singh said.

S Gosavi, deputy director, primary education said, "We have urged the schools not to take this step. The government approved a Rs 100-crore grant last year. We are awaiting its release for the reimbursement to the schools."