With the BJP government of Karnataka (pop. 63 million) fire-fighting an embarrassing number of scandals including a Rs.16,083 crore illegal iron ore mining and Rs.500 crore housing scams which have landed former chief minister and BJP strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa behind bars, it has had little time to implement the historic Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act) which became a national law on April 1, 2010. Under the Act, state governments are obliged to draw up Rules taking local conditions into consideration, to implement the Act which in essence and spirit makes it mandatory for the State (Central, state and/or local governments) to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group six-14. But with the state’s BJP administration preoccupied with political survival, the Rules reportedly framed in June, are yet to be notified.
The excuse offered by the state’s finance ministry is “lack of funds”, and in particular inability to allocate a paltry Rs.69 crore — a mere 0.65 percent of its annual education budget of Rs.10,821 crore — for reimbursing private schools the tuition fees of underprivileged students admitted under the 25 percent reserved quota for poor neighbourhood children compulsorily admitted into class I as per s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act. Far from requiring the State (i.e. the state government) to reimburse the actual tuition fees charged by private unaided schools, s.12 (2) directs government to reimburse tuition fees “to the extent of per-child expenditure incurred by the State, or the actual amount charged from the child, whichever is less”.
“The state government’s finance ministry has told us it does not have enough funds to implement the RTE Act. However, we are looking at ways to manage funds for the Act and are hopeful of implementing the same well before the next academic year begins,” says Prabha Alexander, programme officer of Karnataka’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme.
According to the Karnataka unit of the SSA (Education for All) programme, if the Rules are notified, an estimated 99,000 students will be admitted into class I by the state’s 10,252 private unaided schools under s.12(1) (c) in the year beginning June 2012. In 2013, this figure will double and by 2019-20, the total number of poor neighbourhood quota students in classes I-VIII in private schools is estimated at 750,000. Given that the expenditure per child per year incurred by the government in its own schools is Rs.7,000 — which covers teacher’s salary, infrastructure, midday meal and other expenses — the state government will have to pay out Rs.69.3 crore to private unaided schools for admitting 99,000 students in the first year of implem-entation, with the total expenditure over eight years aggregating Rs.554 crore. This sum apart, the BJP government needs another Rs.1,500 crore to implement other provisions of the RTE Act in the state. While the Rs.1,500 crore will be shared by the Centre and the state as per the 65:35 ratio, there is no clarity on who will pay the Rs.7,000 per student per annum admitted into private unaided schools under s.12(1) (c).
.gif)
With less than six months left to the start of the new academic year, the state’s BJP government — at daggers drawn with the Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre — is unwilling, even if it is able, to budget the Rs.69 crore required to be paid to private schools. And even if it does under public pressure notify the Rules, there is likely to be a welter of confusion, chaos and protest over the modus operandi of selecting 25 percent quota students and tuition fee reimbursement modalities, with the state’s private unaided schools having filed writs in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of s.12.
Comments M.Srinivasan, founder-principal of the cbse-affiliated Gear Innovative International School, Bangalore and president of MICSA (Managements of Independent CBSE Schools Association) which has 40 CBSE-affiliated schools in Bangalore as its members: “Private schools’ only source of income is tuition fees. The infrast-ructure, academic environ-ment, highly-qualified teachers and other facilities we provide cannot be offered at the Rs.7,000 per child per year which the government spends in its schools. It’s not financially feasible for private schools to subsidise students admi-tted under s.12 without raising the tuition fees of the remaining 75 percent. Impl-ementing the RTE Act will seriously endanger the financial and administrative autonomy of private schools and undermine the quality of education delivered in them. The Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions filed by private school managements challenging the RTE Act, and we are hopeful of a favourable verdict.”
Meanwhile with the state government unwilling to pay out even Rs.7,000 per year per s.12 child to private schools, and the latter reluctant to admit them at this rock-bottom fee (most private independents charge tuition fees of Rs.4,000-40,000 per month), the RTE Act is a non-starter in this southern state. And this stalemate is likely to persist until the apex court delivers its much awaited judgement in Writ Petition (C) No.95 of 2010 filed by the Private Unaided Schools of Rajasthan, challenging the constitutional validity of several provisions of the RTE Act, including s.12.
Only after the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court lays down the law, will the rights and responsibilities of the state government and private unaided/independent schools become clear. At least more than one hope so.
Swati Roy (Bangalore)