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Last Updated: March 11, 2023, 14:23 IST
Maharashtra had brought down the annual fees of RTE quota students to Rs 8,000 after schools closed due to the March 2020 lockdown (Representational image)
The RTE Act requires that private unaided schools reserve one-fourth of their seats for children belonging to marginalised and economically poor sections of society
The government of Maharashtra has increased the fees of children admitted to private unaided schools under the Right To Education (RTE) quota. This changed fee structure marks a return to the expenses the central and state administrations bore for the studies of such students in pre-Covid times in the state, reported a leading news daily.
The state had brought down the annual fees of RTE quota students to Rs 8,000 after schools closed due to the March 2020 lockdown. This followed in the academic year 2021-22, as well. Prior to the pandemic hitting, in the academic year 2019-20, the fee was Rs 17,670.
The RTE Act requires that private unaided schools reserve one-fourth of their seats for children belonging to marginalised and economically poor sections of society. The mandate applies from entry-level up to class 8. The government pays the fees of these students. A provision in the RTE Act states that all reimbursements have to be borne by the Centre and state governments in a 60:40 ratio.
However, in Maharashtra, as in many other states in India, the reimbursements have been slow to come. As per reports, ever since the RTE Act was first enforced in the state in 2011-12, the state government has only sent payments in chunks. This has rendered the finances of several schools across Maharashtra messy.
“The government owes a refund of around Rs 1,200 crore to the schools from the academic year 2017-18 onwards,” Pravin Avhale, president of the Maharashtra English School Association (MESA), told the publication less than three months ago.
S C Kedia, the honorary secretary of the Unaided Schools’ Forum, said, “there is definitely more than Rs 1,200 crore pending with the government. They are misleading the public by concealing actual figures.”
In February, officials said that there are over one lakh seats under the RTE 25 per cent reservation quota. They are spread across over 8,600 schools in Maharashtra. The registration for students applying under this quota began on February 20. Private schools had a lukewarm response to it, with a lot less than the expected 9,230 schools registering for the initiative.
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