RTE dues of over Rs 800 cr pending with Govt
09 Jun 2020 01:51:04
Principal Correspondent :
Amount pending of last year should be reimbursed immediately, said Dayma
Reimbursement of fees to the schools in Maharashtra, against the admissions done under the Right to Education (RTE) Act has become a complicated issue. Every year amount gets piled up and schools have to feel satisfied with whatever they get. As per the latest statistics, Maharashtra schools have not received a single penny against admissions done under the RTE last year. Rajendra Dayma, State President of Independent English Schools Association (IESA) has warned School Education Department that it would not cooperate if the pending amount is not paid as early as possible.
While talking to ‘The Hitavada’ Dayma said, “Considering the economic condition arise out of lockdown, Government should immediately reimburse the amount for this academic year.” After the RTE act becoming effective, it became mandatory for the schools to admit students under 25% quota. It was decided that schools would keep 25 per cent seats for the admissions to be done under the RTE. Government would pay Rs 14,000 for every student to schools.
This amount was raised to Rs 18,000 per year per student. Every year, around Rs 400 crore is supposed to be paid by the Government to the schools against RTE admissions all over the State. But Government failed to do so. Some amount is pending since 2014-15. In about 13 districts not a single school has received the payment. In Nagpur district alone 50 per cent amount marked for the year 2018-19 is not yet disbursed. To add to the woes of school managements, the Education Officer of Nagpur has decided to send the amount back to Government instead of distributing it among schools. Bharatiya Janata Party Shikshak Aaghadi termed it as a wrong step. The Aaghadi has warned of agitation if the amount is not reimbursed in four days. According to Dayma, the disparity between Government schools and those run by private players is not good.
The amount which Government pays to the student of its own school is much bigger than it gives as reimbursement to the private schools. Government gives private schools, maximum Rs 18,000 per student per year. Dayma termed it as injustifiable, because if a school charges Rs 30,000 to its regular student, the amount it gets from Government against the RTE admission is not more than Rs 18,000. If another private school charges less than Rs 18,000, it gets that amount. Government compares the amount of fees charged by a school and the sum given by Government. The amount whichever is lesser is given to the school. This is unjustifiable, he added.
Board exam answersheets of Nagpur Division submitted All the answersheets of SSC and HSC examinations have been submitted with Nagpur Divisional Board. Furnishing the details, Ravikant Deshpande, Chairman of Nagpur Divisional Board, said, “It was a major issue troubling us due to lockdown. The teachers had completed evaluation but they were finding it difficult to submit the same. So we have accepted at district-level and then brought at Nagpur.”
Unfair means cases’ probe at districts Every year a proper enquiry of cases of unfair means in the Board examinations is done, for which the students involved have to remain present at the Board office in Nagpur. This year, due to COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible for the students to come to Nagpur so Nagpur Divisional Board dealt such cases at district-level. Students of a particular district, who were caught using unfair means during the exams, would remain present before the team that would enquire the matter. They don’t have to come to Nagpur. It will be enquired by a team of three retired officers of Education Department. Such enquiry was conducted on Monday at Bhandara and Gondia. On Tuesday, it would be held in Nagpur. On Wednesday, students of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli would face the enquiry while such enquiry would be held at Wardha on Friday, informed Ravikant Deshpande, Chairman of Nagpur Divisional Board.