Parents hoping to get a seat for their children under the RTE quota for the 2018–19 academic year have reason to cheer as the number of schools they can choose from is set to expand.
With the aim of improving the efficacy of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the State government is planning to ensure that aided schools too start reserving seats for students from weaker sections in the neighbourhood. “We are in the process of maoking changes to ensure that scope of the RTE Act is extended to aided institutions and we will ensure that the right beneficiaries are selected,” said Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait. As per Section 12 (1) (b) of the RTE Act, aided schools shall provide free and compulsory elementary education to such proportion of children admitted based on the annual recurring aid or grants so received bears their annual recurring expenses, subject to a minimum of 25%.
Sources in the Department of Public Instruction said they were in the process of finalising the logistics for implementing this clause. “We are working on a proposal to ensure that RTE Act is implemented in aided schools and we will send the file pertaining to this shortly,” an official in the department said.
Currently, 25% of seats in private unaided schools are reserved for students from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. The ceiling for the RTE reimbursement to private schools for this academic year has been revised to ₹8,000 for pre-primary classes and ₹16,000 for primary.
For the 2017–18 academic year, the State government has estimated ₹350 crore towards the reimbursement of fee for 5.22 lakh children studying in 11,918 schools.
RTE Students and Parents Association chief secretary B.N. Yogananda said this was a welcome move as parents would have a larger pool of seats to choose from. “More number of children will also get seats under the RTE quota,” he said.
