HC quashes exemption from RTE quota for private schools

HC quashes exemption from RTE quota for private schools

Subject: Polity

Sec: Msc

Context:

The Bombay High Court quashed the Maharashtra government’s recent notification which had exempted private schools — located within one kilometre radius of a government or government-aided school — from providing a 25% quota for students belonging to “weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood”.

Right To Education (RTE):

• The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010.
• The quota comes under Section 12(1)(C) of The Right Of Children To Free And Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Students admitted under this quota are given fee concessions, with the state government meant to reimburse private schools for the same.

What did the rule say?

• The “local authority shall not identify the private unaided school, for the purposes of 25% admission of disadvantaged group and weaker section under the Maharashtra Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2013, where government schools and aided schools are situated within one-kilometre radius of that school.”
• In Kerala, the fee concession for students is only made available to RTE quota students if there are no government or aided schools “within walking distance”, which is one km for students joining Class 1.

Why have states introduced such exemptions?

• In Karnataka, when the rule was introduced in 2018, the primary intention of RTE is to provide education to all classes of students… Till date, Karnataka has allowed parents to admit children to private schools despite having government schools in the same neighbourhood. This has resulted in the enrollment ratio [in government schools] dropping drastically.”
• According to Section 12(2) of the RTE Act, state governments are bound to reimburse expenses incurred by the school per child, or the fee amount, whichever is less.
• In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra English School Trustees Association (MESTA) threatened to boycott RTE admissions last December citing pending payments of Rs 1,800 crore in reimbursements.

Why was the notification criticised?

• Section 12(1)(C) of the RTE Act that mandates 25% reservation of seats to children from disadvantaged backgrounds is in the direction of contesting the education apartheid in the country, and bringing parity and equality of opportunity for all children. Maharashtra government’s amendment is unjustified. Bottom of Form
• One of the intentions of this law (the quota) was to enable students from marginalised backgrounds to get education in good schools.