Pune: The State government issued a government resolution (GR) on Thursday stating that the schools that are due for reimbursement for the year 2017-18 against the 25 per cent admissions under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act will be paid according to the rate fixed in the year 2016-17.
However, the schools feel this might now pave the way for corruption and further delay the process of reimbursement. The fight between the private unaided schools and the government over the issue of non-reimbursement was at its peak at the time of admissions, with many schools refusing to participate in the admission process.
According to the GR, the details of which were determined at a meeting held in the month of September, the education officials have been instructed to make rounds of the schools, and carry out inspection before releasing the reimbursement amount.
The committees and squads carrying out the inspection need to check the admissions and entries in SARAL portal, as well as those carried forward from the last year, by personally visiting the schools. They need to take attendance of the RTE students in each class and draft a report.
They also need to scrutinise the school fees and look out for the PTA report and account books of the schools. If possible, the officials could conduct a meeting of the parents to inquire about the fees. The GR also states that the schools will first be paid 50 per cent.
After due inspection and report, the education officials will create a list of schools due for reimbursement in a des cending order.
To be eligible for the reimbursement, the schools need to be recognised under RTE Act and they should have their audit completed by a chartered accountant, which should have the due mention of the fees that they charge. Unless the schools have RTE recognition and an audit report, they will not get the reimbursement.
Reacting to the GR, Jagruti Dharmadhikari of Independent English Schools Association, one of the leading school associations that was fighting for the pending reimbursement said, “Why do they want to check all these documents of the school again, as while registering under RTE, we already provide them with all these. And moreover, the education officials do not have time for the regular inspections, when will they find time to carry out inspections for RTE? They also keep saying that they do not have manpower whenever we go to get our pending work done. This will just end up creating a new set of difficulties for the schools.”
The GR stated that from next academic year, a maximum of three admission rounds will be held for RTE and the fourth round will be conducted on first-come-first-served basis.
