Private partner to monitor RTE Act across TN schools

Accordingly, the appointed company will act as an agent between the government and private schools to also ensure accurate reimbursement of fee to the institutions.

The RTE Act, 2009 mandates 25 per cent reservation in admission for children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in all self-financing schools, especially at the entry level.

So far, the State government has sanctioned Rs 401.98 crore for fee reimbursement to private schools for children admitted under this provision for the period from 2013-14 to 2016-17.

During the academic year 2017-18, as many as 90,607 children from the disadvantaged group, weaker sections and even orphans have been admitted under this provision. However, for the last two years, the reimbursement of school fee to private institutions was not done by the government authorities. In order to ensure transparency in the admission process, online application for admission has also been introduced. A senior official from the Education Department told DTNext that this year, about one lakh students were admitted to private schools through RTE.

“The pending reimbursement amount has been mounted to about Rs 900 crore in the last couple of years,” he added.

According to the official, due to lack of monitoring staff, it has been decided to appoint a company, which will go to every private school and collect all the details about RTE admission and would report to the government. “Based on this, fee will be reimbursed,” the official said.

Stating that the company will also make arrangements for the parents to apply online for admissions under the RTE from district and block level educational offices for free, the official said, “All the data from admission to reimbursement will be transparent.”