Govt may pay back RTE fee instantly to schools this year

“This year, arrangements have been made for parents/guardians to apply online from district and block level educational offices. This free-of-cost facility has not only enabled transparency in the admission process but also reduced the work load of the officials monitoring the admission process,” a senior School Education Department official told DT Next.

According to the official, the reimbursement of fees to the tune of Rs 100 crore will be made immediately after the admissions this year. The State government has so far sanctioned around Rs 500 crore for reimbursement of fees to the private schools for the children admitted under this provision for the period from 2013-14 to 2018-19.

Claiming that the number of children to be admitted under RTE in the coming academic year will be more than 1.20 lakh, the official said the online facility will enable any person to seek admission for their wards and the private schools would be under obligation to grant admission if the student is found eligible. “If the eligible applications are more than the intake capacity of a school, random selection method is adopted,” he said, adding that the candidate selection is done in the presence of an officer deputed by the Chief Educational Officer (CEO) of the district concerned.

He said the school managements have been asked to submit a daily report on the admission process. In addition, schools were also instructed to display the number of available seats on notice boards in a legible format. The online admission process for the RTE quota will be held till May 18.