Govt yet to estimate cost of paying pvt schools

The right to education to each and every child in the country up to the age of 14 years would open the doors of all private schools, including the elite ones, to the child of the common man, but the government has not yet estimated the expenses it would incur to ‘sponsor’ the students entering the private schools.

With the Right to Education Act coming into force from today, it becomes mandatory for every private school to fill 25 per cent of its seats with children from poor families residing in its neighbourhood. Under the law, the government will refund the expenses of these seats on a par with what it spends on children in government schools.

According to the latest survey of elementary education by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, private schools comprised 19.44 per cent of the total school in the country. Of this, 5.67 per cent are private-aided and 13.77 per cent are private-unaided.

Though the amount of cost required has not been calculated so far, architects of the legislation are confident that it would not be a huge amount and the government would learn from the demand this year.

The total fund allocation for the implementation of the Act in the five-year period, starting today, is of Rs 1.7 lakh crore. Of this, Rs 34,000 crore is to be spent every year. The Budget allocation this year was just Rs 33,214 crore, which is slightly more than last year’s allocation of Rs 25,338 crore.

According to Central Advisory Board for Education member Vinod Raina, who was one of the architects of the Act, the Budgetary allocation is meant to take care of the government efforts to provide adequate number of teachers and classrooms in the government schools across the country.