U.P. private schools reiterate demand for fee reimbursement

LUCKNOW : The Association of Private Schools, Uttar Pradesh, knocked on the doors of the administration on Monday to find solutions to their problems as according to them, the administration was paying no heed to the problems faced by private schools of the state due to various provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

Addressing a press conference here, the Association’s president Atul Kumar and other office bearers from all districts requested the state government to declare through a gazette or a government order the expenses made by the government in primary government schools during the previous nine sessions from 2013- 2014 onwards under the RTE Act, 2009, and payment of the balance fee reimbursement of the students of economically weaker section ( EWS) and disadvantaged group for all nine years.

Kumar requested for declaration of per child expenditure of the government schools for every year (as per the RTE Act) like in Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

He requested the education department to send only those students for admission in unaided private schools who fulfil all conditions of eligibility set under the RTE Act 2009.

The association also requested the government to allow the concerned private schools to scrutinize the records related to the eligibility of the students of weaker sections and disadvantaged groups who are being sent for admission to unaided private schools under Section 12 (1) (C) of the RTE Act, 2009. As per Kumar, as per the GO dated June 30, 2013, the private schools have been getting reimbursement at the rate of Rs 450 per child for the past nine years. As per that rate itself, the education department currently owes around Rs 846 crore to the unaided private schools as dues of the reimbursement amount, in the absence of which a large number of private schools are either on the verge of or have already been shut down due to huge debts.

“As such, if the government fails in paying the balance amount to these unaided private schools, most of these schools will have to be shut down and the parents and government will face new challenge in providing education to the children,” he said.

In such a scenario, it was demanded that the government must look into the economic crisis being faced by the private schools and issue orders for immediate disbursement of the outstanding amount.