Private school managements threaten to withhold admissions until payment of pending fee reimbursement

The Hindu

2 days ago

Private unaided school managements' associations in Andhra Pradesh have said they will withhold admissions under Section 12 (1) (C) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, until the government implements the provisions of the Act in letter and spirit.
The clause mandates unaided private schools to reserve 25% of their entry-level seats for children belonging to the economically weaker section and disadvantaged groups.
In a letter addressed to the State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha, representatives of various associations like Independent Schools' Management Association (ISMA) and Andhra Pradesh Private Unaided Schools' Management Association said they were not against implementation of the Act, but insisted that it be done in its true spirit.
They said, along with Section 12 (1) (C), Section 12 (2) of the Act, which mandates determining the per-child expenditure (PCE) incurred by the State government as per the rules and reimbursing either the school fee or the PCE, whichever is lower, as clearly stipulated in the RTE Rules (G.O. Ms. No. 20, Section 10), should be implemented.
They also raised the issue of ineligible applicants (who are not underprivileged as defined in the Rules) securing admissions, possibly by using others' Aadhar cards, leading to altered residence and income details. They said, besides violation of the rule pertaining to the distance of the selected school from the applicant's residence, there were issues of incorrect date of birth entries, misuse of caste category, sibling category being claimed through cousin's children, misuse of orphan category through grandparents' details and multiple applications.
'It is unfortunate that schools are being pressured to admit every allotted student without undergoing proper verification process,' said ISMA president K. Sreekanth Babu. He pointed out that schools had not received any fee reimbursement from the State government for Section 12 (1) (C ) admissions over the past three years, and that as per the rules, fee reimbursement should be paid directly to the school's account in two instalments — in September and January every year.
The representatives were upset that the authorities concerned had not yet determined, or notified the fee reimbursement for the upcoming academic year 2025-26, which should have been done prior to admissions as per the Act and Rules.
They clarified that they were unwilling and unable to admit the allotted students without proper verification and until the fee reimbursement was duly notified and implemented as per Section 12 (2) of the Act and Section (1) of the RTE rules.
They said they would also be unable to continue accommodating students admitted in their respective schools under this Act unless payment of the pending fees was made to them.