Private schools' bodies seek fixed reimbursement under RTE

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Ambala, July 17

Even after the implementation of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act for the students of pre-primary to Class I from the current academic session, the reimbursement to be made to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) is yet to be fixed by the state government.

Associations of various private schools, in a collective statement, said the reimbursement to teaching students belonging to economically weaker section (EWS) under Rule 134A of the Haryana School Education Rules was the prime reason behind the dispute between the government and private schools.

Mandatory to reimburse schools

As per the RTE Act, it is mandatory that private unaided schools should be reimbursed the cost incurred by them to the extent of per-child expenditure to be incurred by the state, or the actual amount to be charged from the child, whichever is less. —Prashant Munjal, Vice-prez, Haryana progressive schools’ conference

Some parents do not share OTP

PPP has been made mandatory and the OTP generated while uploading data on the MIS portal goes to the registered number of the parent. Sometimes, parents hesitate in sharing the OTP over phone due to the fear of fraud. —Kulbhushan Sharma, State prez, Federation of Pvt schools’ Assn

Earlier this year, Rule 134A was omitted and the RTE was implemented, but the issue of reimbursement hasn’t been resolved.

Prashant Munjal, vice president, Haryana Progressive Schools’ Conference, said: “As per the RTE Act, it is mandatory that private unaided schools should be reimbursed the cost incurred by them to the extent of per-child expenditure to be incurred by the State, or the actual amount to be charged from the child, whichever is less.”

But the government hadn’t disclosed the amount yet. If the amount was not fixed and payments were not released in time, it would become a matter of dispute between the government and schools,” he added.

Kulbhushan Sharma, state president, Federation of Private Schools’ Association, said: “It seems that no lessons have been learned from the past. If the amount is not reimbursed, the financial burden is transferred to students who are already paying full fee. Schools should be reimbursed according to the rules.”

Meanwhile, both bodies have also marked their resentment over the compulsion of Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) to upload the data of students on the Management Information System (MIS) portal.

Kulbhushan said: “PPP has been made mandatory and the OTP generated while uploading data on the MIS portal goes to the registered number of the parent. The OTP should rather be sent to the registered number of the institution as the admission process is to be completed by the school. Sometimes, parents hesitate in sharing the OTP over phone due to the fear of fraud as the same number might be linked with their bank account. Due to this obstacle, schools are facing difficulties in uploading the data. A letter has been sent to the Chief Minister in this context.”

Prashant Munjal said: “Uploading students’ data on the MIS portal is mandatory, but the compulsion of PPP is making it difficult for schools to upload the data. The department should make it optional to put PPP number as there are a number of parents who are yet to get their family IDs made. There are a lot of the parents who have transferable jobs and belong to other states. Such families do not have family IDs.”