An estimated 300,000 recognised/unrecognised private schools countrywide with a massive enrolment of 60 million children are endangered because of non-compliance with infrastructure norms prescribed by the Right to Education Act, 2009. Unsurprisingly 1.2 million dysfunctional government schools are exempt SIX MONTHS AGO, the Kailash Public School in Sehna village (pop. 20,000) in Punjab’s Barnala district experienced the daily buzz and excited chatter of 60 children turned out in neat uniforms. Today the class I-V school housed on a 2,840 sq. ft plot wears a desolate look with dusty blackboards and benches. According to the school’s promoter Praveen Kumar, Kailash Public (estb. 2004) was among the village’s most popular “fully-recognised private primary schools offering quality education” at an all-inclusive annual fee of Rs.3,650. But in November last year, a notice issued to the school by the district education department ordered it to shut down in the middle of the academic year. The notice alleged that the school had not complied with s.12 (1) (c) of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009, which makes it obligatory for private schools to reserve 25 percent capacity in class I for poor children in their neighbourhoods and provide them free education until class VIII. Kumar’s protestations that the school hadn’t received any admission applications under s.12 were not entertained by the district education officials, the “local authority” under the RTE Act. Kailash Public is one of 2,983 budget private schools (BPS) forcibly shut down in the past academic year (2013-14) by governments in nine states (Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand) for violations of the RTE Act. Another 5,097 budget schools have been served closure notices for non-compliance with the Act. Enacted in 2009 after a constitutional amendment (Article 21-A), the RTE Act makes it mandatory for the State (i.e Central, state and local governments) to provide free and compulsory elementary education (class I-VIII) to every child between 6-14 years of age, and prescribes minimum infrastructure, teacher-pupil ratio and other norms for all schools. S.19 of the RTE Act requires all private schools to comply with infrastructure and teacher-pupil ratio norms stipulated by the Schedule of the Act within three years from April 1, 2010 when the Act became operational. With the stipulated norms which include provision of a playground unaffordable for the great majority of BPS promoters, an estimated 300,000 recognised/unrecognised budget private schools with a massive enrolment of 60 million children are confronted with the threat of closure. Unsurprisingly, the country’s 1.20 million government schools are exempt from the punitive provisions of s.19 (see box p.84). India’s 300,000 budget private schools are a unique phenomenon and live demonstration of the inexorable law of supply and demand, as also of the fierce determination of struggling parents at the bottom of India’s iniquitous social hierarchy to secure a good future for their children. Sited mainly in ubiquitous urban slums, tier II towns and in rural India, BPS are the response of small-time entrepreneurs to India’s…
