Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Bhatti Vikramarka has accused the State government of totally neglecting the poor students and failing to admit them in private schools using the provision under Right To Education (RTE) Act.
In a letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he said that as per the DISE data of 2016-17 only 0.02% of students were admitted while the school participation rate was just 0.01% under Section 12(1) (c) of the RTE Act 2009. This section aims at social integration in private aided schools by mandating admission of children belonging to socially disadvantaged and economically weaker sections for 25% of the seats in each class. He said as per DISE data of 2016-17 Telangana has about 91,849 potential seats every year across 12,753 private unaided schools under the 12(1) (c) provision. But statistics prove that the Scheduled Caste (SC) students in private unaided schools are 11.17% and ST students 6.93%. SC and ST student population in government schools is 44.2% and it reflects the lack of diversity and inclusion in private unaided schools.
Notifications
Mr. Bhatti said Telangana has not issued notifications for admission and not notified the per-child cost that is required to claim reimbursement from the Central government for students admitted under Section 12 (1) (c). Moreover, Telangana is also one of the two States that has failed to set up a State Advisory Council that ensures effective implementation of the RTE Act in the State, Mr. Bhatti said. The CLP leader also recalled that the CAG report of 2017 has listed Telangana as a non-compliant State and several Public Interest Litigations have also been filed in the High Court and Supreme Court on the failure to implement the 25% reservation.
Mr. Bhatti said based on devolution of funds to States by the 14th Finance Commission, the fund sharing ratio for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is 60:40, which means Central government provided 60% of the funds for implementation of RTE under SSA. So last year Central government would have provided ₹1095.24 crore as its share and Telangana would had to contribute ₹730.16 crore as its share. But Telangana failed to utilise this money properly, he claimed.
Mr. Bhatti also argued that Andhra Pradesh government has passed AP School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission bill in 2019 to ensure 25% of reservations.
The CLP leader advised the government to follow States like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat that have spent 85% of the SSA funds released to them and Rajasthan was reimbursed 100% of its demand in 2017-18. Chattisgarh has also started online provision for admission forms ensuring that students don’t need to submit multiple forms seeking seats under RTE Act.
