Over 6,000 private schools yet to receive RTE fund of Rs 300 cr

Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, as many as 64,385 students were admitted this year in more than 6,000 private schools across the State. A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that the government has so far reimbursed a sum of Rs 644.69 crore as fees to the private schools, which admitted a total of 4.83 lakh children, in the last three years.

“Funds are released every year for RTE admissions at the mid of every academic year,” he said adding, “However, the Rs 308 crore fund clearance for RTE admissions could not be made due to elections and other activities this year.”

Stating that during the last couple of months, many private school managements have requested the State to reimburse the fees for RTE admissions, the official said, “We have already written letters to the Centre to immediately sanction the amount”. The official also said that the State government is mulling to reimburse at least half of the amount during the mid-academic year so that it could be disbursed to the private schools since most of the institutions are dependent on the reimbursement to pay salaries to the teachers.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association President P K Ilamaran, said that the government should stop taking over RTE admissions since they are losing one lakh students to private schools. “For the last four years, the government is implementing RTE to ensure 25% admissions in private schools under the Act,” he said, adding that the government is not only losing students to private schools but also forcing to give several crore to the private institutions. “The money could also be spent to develop the infrastructure facilities in government schools,” he added.