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Funds under the RTE Act

05/March/2018

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1419

TO BE ANSWERED ON 5TH MARCH, 2018

Funds under the RTE Act

DR. SHASHI THAROOR:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether funds have been released to states for reimbursement of costs incurred with respect to admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009;

(b) if so, the details of the funds released thereof for each State for the last three years;

(d) the details of the proposal claims submitted by States for reimbursement of costs incurred with respect to admissions under the Act for the last three years, State-wise;

(e) whether all the States have notified admissions for children from Economically Weaker and Disadvantaged Sections as mandated by the Act in their respective

State RTE rules; and

(f) if not, the details of the States thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

(SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)

(a) to (d): Section 12(1)(c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides for admission of children belonging to weaker

sections and disadvantageous groups in the neighbourhood schools in Class I or below to the extent of at least 25 percent of the strength of that class. Section 12(2)

further mandates that such schools shall be reimbursed expenditure incurred by them as per the prescribed norms. SSA norms provide that States/UTs will reimburse to the private unaided schools for admission under Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act, 2009 according to the per child cost notified by each State/UT. Thereafter, the expenditure incurred by the State/UT is supported under SSA for Classes I to VIII subject to a limit of 20% of the overall SSA budget approved for the respectively State/UT.

14 States viz. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya

Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and

Uttarakhand & Tripura have notified per-child cost for reimbursement under RTE Act.

There are no private unaided schools in Lakshadweep Islands whereas, RTE Act,

2009 is not applicable in respect of Jammu & Kashmir. Remaining States/UTs have

not issued any notification in this regard.

A total of 13 States have submitted re-imbursement claims in their Annual Work Plan

& Budget (AWP&B) 2015-16 and 2016-17 for children admitted under Section

12(1)(c) during academic session 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. In the AWP&B,

2017-18, 15 States have submitted claims for children admitted under Section

12(1)(c) during academic session 2016-17. Fund was approved by the Project

Approval Board (PAB) of SSA for 7 States during 2015-16, for 10 States during

2016- 17 and for 6 States during 2017-18 as per SSA norms. States-wise details are

at Annexure.

(e) to (f): 5 States viz. Goa, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Telangana have not

issued notifications regarding admissions under RTE Act. There are no private

unaided schools in Lakshadweep Islands whereas, RTE Act, 2009 is not applicable

in respect of Jammu & Kashmir. Remaining 29 States/UTs have issued notification

regarding admission in private unaided schools under Section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act,

2009.

*****

ANNEXURE

REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (d) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1419, ASKED BY DR. SHASHI THAROOR, TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.03.2018 REGARDING “FUNDS UNDER THE RTE ACT”

Details of proposals received from State Governments and approvals against reimbursement to Private Schools for the last three years under SSA (? in lakh

S. No	State	2014-15		2015-2016			2016-2017		Remarks
		Proposed	Approved	Proposed	Approved		Proposed	Approved
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	112.75	0.0	Proposal was not approved for 2016-17, as State has not notified per child cost for reimbursement
2	Bihar	2559.714		0.0	4250.69	0.0	6057.07	0.0	State has neither notified per child cost nor reimbursed the amount to private schools
3	Chhattisgarh	3358.840		3064.690	3500	3133.28	3500	0.0	For 2014-15 & 2015-16, proposal was approved as per SSA norms. For 2016-17, proposal has been approved in principal, subject to reimbursement to private schools and submission of relevant documents.
4	Delhi	5139.510		0.0	14545.78	3481.95	7351.31	0.0	For 2014-15, per child cost was not notified and private schools were not reimbursed. For 2015-16, proposal was approved as per SSA norms. For 2016-17, the proposal has been approved in principal subject to submission of relevant documents
5	Gujarat	1303.300		1303.300	5406.18	5406.18	11374.35	0.0	For 2016-17, proposal has been approved in principal, subject to reimbursement to private schools and submission of relevant documents
6	Jharkhand	672.930		0.0	1500.98	0.0	1000.00	0.0	For 2014-15 & 2015-16, private schools were not reimbursed. For 2016- 17, proposal has been approved in principal, subject to reimbursement to private schools and submission of relevant documents
7	Karnataka	16023.771		12355.156	22636.0	16549.75	37900.00	18246.75	Proposals have been approved as per SSA norms.
8	Madhya Pradesh	24333.400		0.0	50121.64	9707.77	14919.64	14919.64	Proposal for 2014-15 was approved in 2015-16. However, proposal for 2015-16 was not approved, as State has not reimbursed to private schools
9	Maharashtra	13811.270		0.0	24313.08	2469.99	42269.32	1400.00	Proposal for 2014-15 was not approved as State has not reimbursed to private schools. For 2015-16 & 2016-17, proposal has been approved as per SSA norms.
10	Odisha	953.940		15.115	88.34	88.34	35.11	35.11	Proposals have been approved as per SSA norms.
11	Rajasthan	18925.00		4171.210	19895.84	8292.5	26762.03	12453.41	Proposals have been approved as per SSA norms.
12	Tamil Nadu	7157.21		0.0	39936.56	18.62	12493.54	0.0	For 2014-15, proposal was not approved as State did not notify per child cost. For 2015-16, proposal has been approved as per SSA norms. For 2016-17, proposal was not approved as State has not reimbursed to private schools
13	Tripura	0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	406.06	0.0	Proposal for 2016-17 was not approved as State has not started admissions in private schools.
14	UP	5.26 5.262		5.262	121.5	121.5	116.29	0.0	Proposal for 2016-17 was not approved as State has not reimbursed to private schools
15	Uttarakhand	4204.680		4150.838	4958.19	0.0	13147.57	3950.42	Proposals have been approved for 2014-15 & 2016-17 as per PAB norms. Proposal for 2015-16 was approved in principle subject to submission of relevant documents by State.
	Total	98448.825		25065.571	185274.78	49269.88	178495.46	51005.33

Relevance

As per Section 12 (1) (c) of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009, the non-minority private unaided schools are mandated to reserve 25% of their entry level seats for children belonging to the disadvantaged and weaker communities, and to provide them free education till the completion of class 8th. The RTE Act states that schools admitting children under this provision “shall be reimbursed expenditure so incurred by it to the extent of per-child-expenditure incurred by the State, or the actual amount charged from the child, whichever is less, in such manner as may be prescribed.

However, multiple news articles report the struggle states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh among many others are facing either because of paucity of funds from the centre for RTE and from state to private unaided schools or due to no means to track the flow of these funds. Several states have not even notified their per child costs as mandated by the Act. This lack of funds are cited by private schools to deny admissions to children thereby denying lakhs of children their right to quality education mandated by law.

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