Nearly 18 months after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE) became operational on April 1 last year, the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government in the south-eastern seaboard state of Tamil Nadu (pop.72 million) notified Rules for implementation of the Act on November 12.
While some academics and social activists are pleased that their recommendations and amendments to the draft Rules published last December (2010) have been incorporated, the notified Rules have brought little joy to the state’s 11,000 plus private, unaided independent schools including 5,934 Matriculation institutions affiliated with the Directorate of Matriculation Schools (unique to Tamil Nadu), 5,000 private nursery and primary schools, 200 primary-secondary CBSE and 52 CISCE apart from 15 international schools. This is because the Rules empower the state government to closely monitor and control the admission process in all private schools, to ensure they strictly conform with the provisions of s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act which makes it mandatory for all private schools, including independents to fill up 25 percent of capacity in nursery or class I with children from disadvan-taged households in their neighbour-hood, and provide free and compulsory education to them until they attain the age of 14 (class VIII).
According to the Rules the nursery/class I admission process of indep-endent schools will be supervised by school-specific committees including joint directors of elementary education and chief educational officers of the district. Moreover, in compliance with the RTE Act, the state government’s Rules decree that no child or parent should be interviewed or screened for admission; all schools should provide special training for academically weak students; and all children will be entitled to free textbooks, writing material and uniforms.
The Rules also caution private schools against segregating children of economically weaker sections from other children or holding separate classes for them at different timings. The definition of ‘children belonging to disadvantaged sections’ has been broadened to include orphans, HIV-affected children, trans-genders, children of scavengers, socially and educationally backward class children, and children of parents whose annual income is below Rs.200,000 per annum.
While appreciating the laudable purposes and intent of the RTE Act, private school managements are anxious about the practical difficulties of admission under s.12 (1)(c). Implementation of this Rule is particularly unviable for the state’s 5,934 private Matriculation schools and 5,000 private nursery-primaries affiliated with the state examinations board as the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 has imposed a strict tuition fees ceiling on all private schools affiliated with the state board. The fees regime was calculated by the Justice Govindarajan Committee in July 2010, and revised by the Justice Raviraja Pandian Committee in June 2011. Curiously even while the state government admits that it expends Rs.16,000 per child in government schools, the Justice Pandian Committee has imposed a fee ceiling of Rs.8,000 per annum for class I students in state board affiliated private schools.
Therefore, if the newly notified RTE Rules are read together with the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fees) Act, 2009, the maximum tuition fees payable by the state government on behalf of children admitted under s.12 (1)(c) is Rs.8,000 per year or Rs.666 per month. (s.12(2) of the RTE Act enjoins the Central, state or local government to reimburse the cost of tuition of poor neighbourhood children admitted into private unaided schools “to the extent of per child expenditure incurred by the state, or actual amount charged from the child, whichever is less”.)
Even this inadequate reimbursement will be paid in two instalments — in September 2012 and March 2013. This provision in the Rules imposes a huge financial burden on private unaided schools. Now it has become impossible for us to raise salaries of teachers or take up any other development work as we have to follow this fee structure for three years even as costs continue to rise. Moreover, since the government has raised the annual income ceiling of parents of children belonging to weaker sections to Rs.200,000 per year, the number of students claiming admissions under s.12 will be huge, and we will find it very difficult to select students,” says B. Puroshothaman, correspondent and principal of Everwin Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai, which currently charges class I students a tuition fee of Rs.16,000 per year.
Quite clearly, under the cover of the recently promulgated RTE Rules, the Tamil Nadu government has shifted the burden of attaining the laudable objectives of the RTE Act to the state’s 11,201 unaided schools, instead of raising teaching-learning standards in its own 52,308 government primaries, which are short of 55,000 teachers, let alone basic facilities such as safe drinking water and toilets. Simultaneously, under the Rules it has let loose its army of notoriously venal inspectors upon private schools which are making determined efforts to maintain primary education standards. It’s a lethal prescription for leveling down primary education standards in a state which prides itself on its literacy and high standards of school education.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)