RTE mandates govt to provide free education to EWS children: Assn

Countering the UT Administration for ruling that the private unaided schools are bound to serve the needy students from the economically weaker sections (EWS) and disadvantaged groups (DG), the Independent Schools’ Association (ISA) of Chandigarh has claimed that the Right to Education (RTE) Act mandates the government to provide free education to the students from the humble backgrounds.

Calling it an “illegal interpretation” of the RTE Act by the UT Education Department, the ISA president HS Mamik said depending on the availability of infrastructure, the government may permit a private school in the neighbourhood to take in up to 25% of the EWS children in the initial classes.

“To ensure accessibility of education to all, and to accommodate the EWS/ DG students, the government was required to establish new schools within three years by 2013, which it has not done,” he said, while arguing that this implies that the government has done its research and was satisfied that it has enough infrastructure to accommodate the students from the EWS/ DG categories.

Accusing the UT Education Department of “misinforming” the public by stating that the private schools were responsible for providing education to the EWS/ DG students despite the government having sufficient schools in Chandigarh, the ISA president said in violation of the RTE Act, the state government advertises private school admissions before opening the government school admissions for EWS/DG students. “As a result, if EWS/DG children are educated in private schools, the government must reimburse them each month, which the government has been delaying these payments for more than a year in violation of the RTE Act,” he averred. The official data, which, he claimed, showed that the government was taking fewer children into the initial classes in the government schools and increasing the number of children in higher classes to deny students admission to the initial classes and send them to private schools despite the fact that the government schools have vacant seats to accommodate the students.

Questioning the government claim that 15% of the 25% of EWS/ DG children admitted to private schools must be educated for free, while only 70% of the fee for the remaining 10% will be reimbursed, Mamik added: “There are concerns about the legality of such decisions, as well as fears that private schools may close in the near future due to financial difficulties.”

Recently, in an order to this effect passed to settle the contentious matter pertaining to the reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the private unaided schools on the admission of EWS/ DG students in the city, UT Director of School Education (DSE) HPS Brar had ruled that the grant of government land to the educational institutions at concessional rates, without auction, was for charitable purpose. As such all private unaided schools, both minority and non-minority, were bound to serve the needy students from the EWS/ DG categories under the obligations of the land contracts as well as the Constitution.