Refund of fee for RTE seats to be expedited

The move of the government came after most of the private schools were hesitating to give priority for admissions through RTE due to the delay in the compensation of the fees from the authorities owing to various reasons.

RTE mandates 25% reservation in admission for the children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in all the self-financing schools in entry level class. A senior official from School Education Department told DT Next on Wednesday that the State government has so far sanctioned Rs 401.98 crore for reimbursing the fees of the children admitted to the private schools under this provision for the period from 2013-14 to 2016-17.

He said during the last four years about 2.4 lakh students were admitted under RTE in private schools. "In 2017-18 alone a total of 90,607 children have been admitted under this provision," he said adding that during the current academic year about one lakh students got admission through RTE.

However, the payment for the year 2017-18 was delayed since most of the private schools did not provide the RTE admission details in time.

Stating that a total of Rs 248.75 crore has to be paid as fee reimbursement to the private schools for the year 2017-18, the official said "this amount will be paid immediately".

"After series of meetings with the private school management, it has been decided that from the coming academic year, the fees will be disbursed immediately without any delay after getting the RTE admission report from the institutions," the official said adding, "This move is expected to encourage the private schools for effective implementation of RTE."

The official said that in the coming academic year arrangements would be made for the parents to apply RTE admissions online from district and block level educational offices free of cost.

"This initiative has not only introduced transparency in the admission process but also reduced the work load of the officials in monitoring the admission process," he added.