The State government is keen that benefits, now given to students of its schools, should be provided to those students who are to be admitted under the 25 per cent reservation in unaided schools under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
At present, government school students are covered under welfare measures such as free nutritious noon meal and free supply of uniforms and textbooks. Moreover, some of the conditions mentioned in the Act, including distance of the location of schools, have been followed for long.
A couple of weeks ago, the School Education Department notified rules under the Act. It is waiting for inputs and feedback to be provided by private unaided school managements on the proper implementation of the stipulation that such schools, to the extent of at least 25 per cent of the strength of the class, should admit children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged groups in their neighbourhood and provide them free and compulsory education.
As some months are away for the admission process to begin in schools, the Department is gearing itself to tackle issues that may come up once the legal stipulation is sought to be implemented.
In an order issued by the Department last week, it has defined the terms “child belonging to disadvantaged group,” and “child belonging to weaker section.”
The first category of child is defined as one who is an orphan or affected by human immuno deficiency virus or a transgender or a child of a scavenger. This would be in addition to the definition given in the Act.
The second category of child is one whose parents or guardians earn an annual income of lower than Rs. two lakh.
The government has also decided to reimburse expenditure to unaided schools with respect to those covered under the 25 per cent reservation at the rate of expenditure incurred by the State government in government schools for a child or the fee fixed by the Committee constituted under the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009, whichever is less.
