Pending RTE dues: Centre’s refusal to pay puts onus on state

Most schools have been awaiting reimbursement for the past three years, but the Centre has refused to sanction the reimbursement amount for academic years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The state has, meanwhile, released Rs 19.50 crore of the Rs 26 crore supposed to have been released by March 31, 2015 for the last financial year.

The state, however, will have to bear the entire burden for the previous two years, thus putting a financial constraint on RTE implementation, said a state government official.

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For 2015-16, the state has estimated a financial burden of Rs 89 crore for RTE Act implementation.

This is expected to climb to at least Rs 712 crore in eight years. The government’s primary education budget is currently Rs 1,600 crore.

A senior official said the state might find it challenging to sustain the financial burden of RTE on its own. “After the Centre turned down the state’s proposal, the state decided to bear the entire reimbursement costs for 2012-13, and 2013-14 from its own pocket. The state finance department has already cleared Rs 19.5 crore,” the official said.

Though the state government had asked the Centre to share Rs 26 crore in reimbursements, to be paid to schools for 2012-13 and 2013-14, Nand Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education, confirmed that the Centre rejected the

proposal. This is a critical issue, hindering smooth implementation of the RTE Act across the country.

Accordingly, in Maharashtra, a Government Resolution (GR) dated April 30 clarified that the fee reimbursement is only for class I and not pre-primary schools. This implies that schools that admitted students from nursery and other pre-primary classes will have to do with a 25 per cent cut in revenue for three years.

Justifying the state government’s move, Mahavir Mane, director of the state primary education department, said, “The RTE Act applies to children from 6-14 years of age only, therefore we will reimburse the fees only from class I.”

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