No better time to reform RTE Act implementation

The Hindu

2 days ago

A recent furore over delay in opening the admission portal for Right to Education Act for the academic year 2025-26 has not only informed people about the existence of such an Act but it has also opened up a discussion for the regulation of the Act and its implementation.
The Right to Education (RTE) Act, enacted in India on August 4, 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14.
While the portal would usually be opened by mid-April and the admission process would end by May, the unusual delay of over a month has put the parents waiting for admission under RTE, at a crossroads.
Despite facing dilutions, under RTE, a considerable number of students looking for education in private schools benefited, but the recent developments in the centre-State conflict in releasing fund meant for school education have directly affected the admission processes.
Though the School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi recently said that he had written a letter to the Centre seeking details about the pending dues under the RTE Act, the State announced that it would bear the Centre's dues too.
As the Madras High Court was hearing a case pertaining to the delay in admissions under RTE Act, based on a petition filed by V. Eswaran, an administrator of the Coimbatore-based organisation Marumalarchi Iyakkam, the court has directed the Union Government to submit details of funds due to Tamil Nadu under the 25% reservation quota mandated by the RTE Act.
Anand Raj, a social activist based in Madurai, said that a Right to Information Act reply from the State government regarding the fund released by the Union government for the RTE Act from 2009-10 till 2018-19 revealed that while ₹20,300 crore was to be released, only ₹8,446 crore was released.
He noted that the issue of Union holding back the funds meant for the Act was not a new one but had been in practice for several years.
Apart from the political motivations which affected the implementation of the Act, the actual admission practice, on several occasions, has come under criticism, owing to the prevailing gaps in implementation.
S. Umamaheshwari, an education activist, said that citing very minor differences, the private schools, awaiting reasons to reject applications under RTE Act, abruptly reject admissions.
'Though the State government reimburses the schools, private schools, wanting to escape other expenses for a student like books, uniforms, extra activities, find all ways to reject an application,' she alleged.
While the Act has framed certain rules like location of the student's house within one km radius of the school, the same technicality was being armed to reject students, she added.
With such technicalities in practice, rejections become much simpler for them, Ms. Umamaheshwari stated.
Not just the rejection, but the harsh attitude of school administration towards students admitted through RTE and the discriminatory practices towards them force the parents to remove their wards from the school, she said.
Subbaiah, a parent, whose son studied under RTE in a private school at Chrompet in Chennai from class 1 to 3, due to the demand for half payment of fees from the school, moved his son to a nearby government school.
He said, as they demanded him to pay half the actual fees citing additional spending on school events, they could not afford to pay the fees.
'In the mid academic year, I had to remove him from that school,' he added.
As he was uninterested in fighting with the school administration, he said he did not resist.
Mr. Anand Raj, listing down the troubles the parents have to face from the schools, said that the school administrations degrade the students studying under the Act by identifying them in a classroom by calling out their names.
While it would morally destabilise the students, exorbitant fees demanded for extra-curricular activities, workshops and study materials would eventually stress parents who mostly could not afford to pay them, he added.
A School Education Department Government Order 173 section 8(2) dated January 8, 2011, clarified that textbooks, library, uniform, information and communication, technology, sports equipment among others should be provided for free of cost and no difference should be shown towards permitting students to access them.
Citing the order, he alleged that most of the schools were not adhering to the G.O.
'Even many well-established schools frequently charge students for various reasons. After a certain time, the parents would have to stop questioning to safeguard the children's education,' he noted.
A School Education Department official- private school wing said that the rejection of RTE applications for technical reasons has been reduced with the direct involvement of officials during the admission process.
But he agreed that schools were charging the students under the RTE Act for various reasons.
'As the administrations say they were not paid by the government for the extracurricular activities and sports, we have to let them collect the fees unless it does not affect the students,' he stated.
However, the official said that they were instructing schools not to exclude RTE students from any school activities and they have also been warned of actions that would follow.