Private schools in UP to boycott RTE Act, refuse admissions

Unhappy with the Uttar Pradesh government for non-reimbursement to private schools in last two years for providing education to children under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, schools registered with the Independent Schools' Federation of India across the state on Saturday announced that they will boycott RTE admissions for the coming session.

There are over 2,000 CBSE and ICSE schools affiliated to the federation.

Madhu Sudan Dikshit, state president the federation, in a statement, said: The government has "arbitrarily set a reimbursement rate of Rs 450 per month per child rather than fixing it as per the formula stipulated in section 12 (2) o the RTE Act". Therefore, the private schools have decided that they will not admit any children under RTE in the coming academic session of 2018-19.

Dixit also said that according to the relevant clauses in the RTE Act, the state shall reimburse private schools either the fee amount actually charged by the private school from children or the per-pupil expenditure in the government school system, whichever is the lower.

He added that the Uttar Pradesh government spent about Rs 5,000 per month per child in its own schools which impart far poor quality of education.

He also claimed that due to the lopsided policies of the state government, many private schools were on the brink of closure as they were not able to pay salaries to their staff and teachers due to the undue burden put on them.

--IANS

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