In Maharashtra, over 3,000 private independent (unaided) schools have refused to set aside 25 percent capacity for poor children as mandated by s.12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009, until the state government clears the Rs.800 crore outstanding payment due as RTE admission reimbursements for the past five years (2012-17). However instead of expressing contrition or apologising, the states education ministry, which estimates the pending amount as a mere Rs.148.28 crore (2012-17), has threatened to send de-recognition notices to schools for stopping s.12 admissions.

S.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act, introduced by the Congress-led UPA-II government in 2010, obliged all private financially independent schools to reserve 25 percent capacity in elementary education (classes I-VIII) for children from poor households in their neighbourhood. However, to partly compensate independent schools the cost of providing free-of-charge education to poor neighbourhood students, s.12 (2) requires the State (state or local governments) to reimburse tuition fees equivalent to the per pupil cost incurred by government in its primary schools or actual fees of private schools, if lower.

Data provided by the government claims private unaided schools in the state have admitted 260,982 students since 2012-13 and have already been reimbursed Rs.154.20 crore of the total Rs.302.43 crore (2012-17).

However, the Independent English Schools Association (IESA), which represents 3,000 private unaided schools and several smaller school-related associations, claims the arrears amount revealed by the government isn’t updated. “The 260,000 students represent entry-level RTE quota students who have moved up to higher classes with independent schools having borne their expenses for the past five years. However, the government conveniently chooses to ignore this fact to escape paying school managements reimbursements on a cumulative basis”, says Rajendra Singh, secretary, IESA.

The Maharashtra government has always disputed the reimbursement amount owed to composite, independent schools for children admitted in pre-primary classes on the narrow legal argument that the RTE Act is applicable to children in the 6-14 years age group, and not children below age six although a clause of s.12 (1) (c) directs composite schools to reserve 25 percent capacity in preschools pari passu with class I.

On April 28, 2015, the Bombay high court had directed the government to reimburse composite schools under s.12 (2) stating that the appropriate governments cannot shirk their responsibilities by contending that they are under no obligation towards pre-primary education.

Yet, despite this high court verdict, the states BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government cancelled all pre-primary admissions made under the RTE Act in the academic years 2012-15 through a government resolution dated April 30, 2015. It also filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court order which is awaiting final adjudication.

With no relief in sight for the fifth year in a row, school associations have now once again approached the courts, filing a writ petition with the Mumbai high courts extended bench at Aurangabad to direct the state government to pay the accumulated arrears on account of children admitted in pre-primaries of composite K-12 schools. The petition will be heard on February 23.

The stalemate between the adamant schools and the states education ministry has already disrupted RTE admissions under s.12 for 2018-19. With schools refusing to register on the governments RTE online portal or disclose the number of seats available under s.12 (1) (c), the first students admission lottery, slated for February 14-15 will also be pushed back. In 2017-18, 100,662 socially disadvantaged students applied for admission into 7,170 private independent schools under s.12 (1) (c).

Quite clearly, with the 3,000 independent schools having refused to admit s.12 children in the forthcoming academic year (2018-19), there are great expectations from the Bombay high court which is scheduled to hear the independent schools writ petition on February 23. Independent schools which have suffered the double whammy of having to admit socio-economically disadvantaged children at concessional fees and are not receiving reimbursements on time, have a strong case.

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)