Monday, April 30, 2012

Right to Education (RTE) Act and Private Schools

As per the RTE Act, out of total 1,045 private schools in the city, only 450 have submitted applications for recognition before April 21, the deadline for application set by the Education Department.
“It was a mandate for the private schools, both existing and new, to apply for recognition, afresh. Following RTE, irrespective of the fact whether they are already recognised with the state Education Department or not, all the private schools had to apply for recognition. This was well publicised and uploaded on the official website of the department,” said District Education Officer (DEO) R I Patel.
According to the DEO, the private schools were given one-month time for applications as the recognition forms were released as well as uploaded on the website on March 24, while the deadline was April 21. The fee was decided in two slabs by the department. The new schools had to pay Rs 1,000, while for the existing ones it was Rs 500 as application fee.
About the schools who had failed to submit applications, the DEO clarified that the defaulters have to now approach the state government through Principal Secretary Primary Education. “No application will be entertained at the DEO office after the last date,” added Patel.
After receiving these applications, the department is open for inspection to these schools confirming the facts as certified by the schools to be correct. Thus, recognition will be awarded to these schools complying these norms.
Already, there is a lot of debate going on within the education fraternity as well as between state government on reservation of 25 per cent seats for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in private schools. Being the major bone of contention, financial as well social implications concerning this reservation are being discussed at length.

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