While the State is planning to expand the online admission process through RTE to all districts in the State, Sakal Times analyses the challenges ahead of the online RTE admission procedure in the State with respect to all its stakeholders.
Pune: The most challenging part of the Right to Education (RTE) admissions for the schools is that the government has failed to pay the reimbursement for last three years. The government has paid only 10 per cent of the total reimbursement to the schools that leads to difficulties in the admissions under RTE.
“Interestingly, the entire RTE admission procedure for the parents and students is itself a challenge and the delay of reimbursement money from the government add to the woes,” opined RTE activists and school associations.
Jagruti Dharmadhikari of Independent English Schools Association (IESA) said that many schools incur huge losses as the government has failed to compensate for 25 per cent free RTE admissions. Speaking to Sakal Times, Dharmadhikari said, “After introducing RTE, many schools have been facing losses as the government has not paid the due compensation at the given time. Also, we have requested the government to give us the permission to transfer RTE seats to regular admissions if the seats remain vacant after completion of all RTE rounds. But, we have been denied that too. While it may still be possible for schools that charge huge fees from other students to balance this out, it’s not possible for all schools and smaller private schools who suffer a great deal.”
RTE activist Mukund Kirdat also supports the claim saying that the losses incurred in a way discourage schools from accepting RTE students, before as well as after admissions.
“It wouldn’t be correct to give RTE seats to regular students as it would promote corruption in the system and would be unfair to RTE students. However, the government should compensate for the fees in time so that the schools can function well. In the past three years, the government has paid hardly 10 per cent of the total reimbursement. This attitude will hamper the interest of RTE students,” Kirdat said.
