Release RTE funds for two academic years: Pvt schools urge Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: With funding under the Right to Education (RTE) for the current and previous academic years pending from the School Education Department, State-wide members of the Tamil Nadu Correspondent Welfare Association for Private Schools have urged the State government to release the funds at the earliest.

Speaking to DT Next, NS Kudiyarasu, state general secretary of the association, who is also a correspondent of a private school in Mayiladuthurai, “The plight of all private schools in TN is similar: struggle to function as the government is yet to release the RTE funds. With 8,000 students studying in our school, around 2,000 have been admitted under RTE.”

Kudiyarasu added that the RTE Act funds for the two academic years 2023-24 and 2024-25 are pending from the government. Due to the shortage, 11,000 schools are affected, claim the private school association members.

“We received the 2022-23 academic year funds only a few months back. And, there is already a lag in releasing the funds, which severely affects the functioning of schools across TN,” added another member of the association. “Since the Directorate of Private Schools has already verified the details of students in the private self-governing schools through RTE, we urge the government for quick release of funds.”

For the academic year 2024-25, the Directorate of Matriculation Schools (DMS) had shortlisted 1.57 lakh applications from across the State in May. For this academic year, the government announced that there were 84,765 seats in TN.

Incidentally, DMS has announced Rs 383.59 crore as reimbursement to private schools for admitting students under RTE for academic year 2022-2023 in March, and the funds were released to the schools.