Private independent schools in Maharashtra which have dutifully admitted poor children in their neighbourhoods into primary/elementary school (classes I-VIII) under s.12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, say that the state government owes them Rs.900 crore. Under this provision, private (non-minority) schools are obliged to reserve 25 percent of capacity in class I for poor children in their neighbourhoods and retain them — free-of-charge — until completion of elementary education (class VIII). Under s.12 (2) of the RTE Act, to compensate private schools that admit poor students selected under the state/municipal government’s lottery system, the state government is obliged to partially reimburse them the expense towards educating students admitted under s.12 (1) (c) by paying them the equivalent of per-child expense it incurs in its own government schools. Over 70 percent of Maharashtra’s 11,000 independent schools — including 8,000 budget private, i.e, low-cost affordable schools — say they have either not received any reimbursement or have been paid partial dues by the state government’s school education department for the academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Maharashtra state government spends Rs.17,670 per student per year in public (government) schools. Therefore, even under the iniquitous s.12 (2) formula, the state government would need to budget Rs.1,136 crore annually for children from 80,000 poor households admitted into class I of private independent schools, and for children admitted in previous years and retained until completion of class VIII. However, this amount calculated by the Pune/Aurangabad-based Independent English Schools Association (IESA, estb. 2014) is contested by the education ministry. According to a ministry spokesperson, the annual payout of the state government under s.12 (2) is Rs.150-180 crore and the pending reimbursement amount is Rs.336 crore of which half was reimbursed for the year 2018-19 and another Rs.90 crore was paid in February this year. Education ministry officials attribute the huge discrepancy between the two calculuses to private school managements unable to provide proof of s.12 (1) (c) admissions and compliance with the provisions of s.19 (which prescribes minimal infrastructure norms from which iniquitously, government schools are exempt), under rules written by the state government. IESA and associations representing 14,000 budget private schools (BPS) across the state have repeatedly petitioned the courts to direct the government to pay them their s.12 (2) reimbursement dues. On February 12, 2019, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court passed an order directing the state government to clear these dues. But neither the previous BJP/Sena nor its successor Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP Maharashtra Aghadi coalition have complied with the high court order. The huge discrepancy between the amount claimed by private schools as pending dues under s.12 (2) and the government estimate, is also the outcome of numerous independent (including BPS) schools having admitted poor neighbourhood children into pre-primary classes. Under a proviso embedded in s.12 (1) (c), schools dispensing pre-primary education are obliged to start earlier and reserve 25 percent capacity in preschools for poor neighbourhood children. In 2012, the state…
