The state has amended the Maharashtra Children’s Free and Compulsory Education Rules, whereby private unaided schools located within a kilometer radius of government or private aided educational institutions will not participate in the RTE admissions. The new rule will be in force from the upcoming academic year 2024-25.
While parents and education experts say it will rob students of a good English-medium school, education officers said it will draw students back to government schools where efforts are on to raise the standards of English education. RTE implementation in the state began from 2017-18 for students aged 6-14.
All schools, barring unaided minority schools and those imparting religious instructions, had to reserve 25% of their total seats for entry level admission (pre-school or class 1) for disadvantaged groups and weaker sections. This year, 8,824 schools, including 337 in Mumbai, had RTE seats. Across the state, 63% vacancies were filled. In Mumbai, only 37% of the 6,569 seats were filled. Next year, the number of seats is expected to drop drastically.
In Mumbai, said education experts, most private unaided schools have either a municipal or an aided school within a one kilometre radius. “The government wants to wash off its responsibility of providing primary education to poor students. Most parents opt for private schools. If they are kept out, children will be forced to study in civic and aided schools,” said an education expert. He added that the move could also be a fallout of National Education Policy (NEP) that advocates RTE from age 3 to 18.
This year, a section of private unaided schools in the state and Mumbai boycotted RTE admissions. Over 30,000 seats in private unaided schools were not available for RTE admissions. Though the seats could not be filled with general candidates (as per the rules), schools were happy keeping them vacant rather than incur expenses and not get a refund. While the state gives over Rs 17,000 per student a year, schools claim to incur anywhere between Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 per RTE child.
This year, state earmarked Rs 200 crore for fee reimbursement, of which around Rs 138 crore has been released so far. Sanjay Patil, president, Maharashtra English School Trustees Association, said fees since 2017, when admissions went online, are pending. As per the amendment, private unaided schools enjoying benefit of state schemes have to participate in RTE admissions. Such schools, however, will not get any reimbursement.