Pune: The private schools that have boycotted admissions under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009, due to non-reimbursement of money of RTE admissions have received interim relief till March 28 from the High Court.
The relief means that no coercive action should be taken against the given schools under the Federation of Schools Association in Maharashtra, those who do not admit RTE students for the year 2018-19, until the next hearing. The Federation includes IESA, Private Unaided Schools Management Association (PUSMA) and The Unaided Schools Forum (USF).
Meanwhile, the RTE admissions of the students who were allotted schools in the first lottery have already begun. Thus there might be confusion amongst the students who have been allotted the schools that have boycotted the entire process and are opposing the RTE admission. Despite the schools’ refusal to register, the government auto-registered these schools and hence their names appear in the RTE list.
More than 2,000 schools across the state, including 23 in Pune and 64 in Pimpri-Chinchwad are part of the boycott.
The decision to boycott the RTE admissions in the state was made after the prolonged displeasure of the private schools, over the delay in payment of the promised reimbursement against the 25 per cent RTE admissions in each school. According to the date by IESA, the government owes the schools around Rs 953 crore, out of which it has reimbursed only Rs 150 crore.
