Private schools within one km of govt schools not obligated to have RTE seats

The school education department of the state issued a gazette notification  dated February 9 that stated, “Provided that the local authority shall not identify the private unaided school, for the purposes of 25 per cent admission of disadvantaged group and weaker section under the Maharashtra Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2013, where government schools and aided schools are situated within one-kilometre radius of that school.”

The notification also clarifies that in case of no aided school in the area, private schools will be identified to give RTE admissions and will be eligible for reimbursement for the fees. A new list of schools obligated for the RTE admission will be prepared now, considering the new rule, the notificated stated.

A senior official from the school education department said that the RTE admissions led to an additional expenditure of reimbursement of the fees. “With the new rule, state’s own schools will be given preference for RTE admission, before diverting them to private schools,” said the official.

Private school managements have welcomed the move, pointing out the pending reimbursements to be paid by the government for RTE admissions. They have been opposing RTE admissions for some time now, especially due to the pending reimbursements, which they claim is over Rs 2,000 crore.

SC Kedia, secretary of Unaided Schools’ Forum in Mumbai, said, “It is their own compulsion now rather than our demand.”

Questioning the state’s power to amend the central law, Kishore Darak, an educationist based out of Ahmednagar, said, “The notification contradicts RTE in its current form and hence may be struck down by legal authorities. The State should refrain from issuing orders that contradict the letter or the spirit of the RTE.”

Raising different concerns, Anubha Sahay from India Wide Parents’ Association, said, “The government is diverting these children to their own schools, without really working towards improving the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools.”

Justifying the states’ power, Tushar Mahajan, deputy secretary, state school education department, said, “Section 38 of the RTE act allows powers for states to prepare rules for the implementation of the act. No changes are made to the original law but only to the rules prepared in 2011 and 2013 for the implementation of RTE in Maharashtra.”

In 2018, the Karnataka government had issued a similar gazette notification, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Stating that this is not in violation of the RTE Act, Ravi Bharadwaj, managing partner at Edulegal with expertise in education sector, said, “This is not directly in violation of the RTE law as section 6 anyway recommends that the government should establish school in areas that do not have schools. Considering this, section 12.1(C) was a transitory provision, until the government established schools in all neighbourhoods.”