EVEER SINCE THE SUPREME COURT’S judgement in Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan vs. Union of India (2012) exempted private unaided minority schools from the applicability of s.12 (1) (c) of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009, which makes it mandatory for all unaided private schools to admit 25 percent of children in class I from among poor and socially disadvantaged children in their neighbourhood, there’s been a rush among private schools in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 64 million) to acquire minority status. However at that time the state’s BJP government defined minority institutions as schools with at least 75 percent of students from ‘notified’ minority communities.
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This definition was vehemently opposed by schools aspiring for minority status with some contesting it in court. But a year after the Congress party assumed office in the Vidhana Soudha following the state assembly election of 2013, on June 18 the Congress state government issued a notification defining minority schools as institutions in which at least 25 percent of students are from notified (linguistic or religious) communities. Thus schools which host 25 percent of students from notified linguistic/religious minorities, will qualify for conferment of minority status. In short, exemption from the provisions of s. 12 (i) (c) is now available to a substantially larger number of schools in the state.
According to the state government’s department of public instruction, currently there are 1,059 minority schools in Karnataka, and 160 in Bangalore. With the minority status eligibility norms relaxed, the expectation is that a larger number of the state’s 13,000 unaided private schools will apply for — and get — linguistic/religious minority status. “Once the new guidelines are drafted, the Directorate of Urdu and Other Minority Language Institutions under the department of public instruction will examine all the parameters and grant minority status to eligible schools,” says Mohammad Mohsin, commissioner for public instruction.
The Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), which claims a membership of 1,800 schools statewide, has opposed the dilution of the enrolment criterion for minority institutions. “The main reason for the rising number of schools applying for minority status is not aversion to poor children, but the state government’s failure to reimburse the subsidised tuition fees of quota students. Private unaided schools are yet to receive tuition fee reimbursement for the academic year 2013-14. Moreover the government’s reimbursement amount of Rs.11,000 per s. 12 (1) (c) student covers only tuition fees, and not uniforms, books and other expenses. We want the state government to increase the fee reimbursement amount as it’s become financially untenable for many school managements to run their institutions,” says A. Maryappa, secretary of KUSMA.
The Congress government’s June 18 circular redefining minority schools, has also incurred the wrath of the RTE Task Force, a coalition of NGOs, parents and activists promoted to monitor effective implementation of the RTE Act in the state. “The number of free seats in private unaided schools will reduce sharply as the number of minority schools, which are exempted from admitting poor children, will multiply. We have presented a memorandum to the education minister demanding a change in the criterion for awarding minority status. Only schools which have at least 50 percent of students from the minority community should be accorded minority status. Already many private schools in the state are not implementing s. 12 (i) (c) with most of them demanding that poor parents pay for uniforms, books and other activities. The state government is not serious about implementing the RTE Act in private schools,” says Nagasimha G. Rao, president of RTE Task Force.
Moreover the Azim Premji Foundation, which has promoted the state-of-the-art Azim Premji University in Bangalore, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Karnataka high court challenging the state government’s June 18 notification redefining minority schools. “This order does not disclose any justification for the 25 percent limit and is completely arbitrary and contrary to the decisions laid down by the Supreme Court that in order to preserve minority character, educational institutions must primarily cater to students from that minority,” argues the petition.
With the high court directing the state government, the National Commission for Minorities and the Karnataka State Minorities Commission to respond to the petition, the confusion over award of minority status to private schools and implementation of s. 12 (i) (c) in the state’s 13,000 private unaided schools is likely to persist. Yet curiously in their zeal to implement the RTE Act in private schools, neither the RTE Task Force nor the Azim Premji Foundation have raised the pertinent question of why teaching-learning standards in government schools can’t improve. If they did there would be no takers for the s. 12 (i) (c) quota.
Prayank (Bangalore)