Punjab: RTE admission stalled, pvt schools cite lack of reimbursement norms
The Punjab and Haryana high court had, in its order dated February 19, directed all private unaided recognised schools in the state to reserve 25% of their Class 1 seats for children from weaker and disadvantaged sections in the state. The court also ordered the state government to ensure strict enforcement of this direction in the 2025-26 academic session.
The school education department followed up the court's ruling with instructions to DPI, elementary education and all district education officers (DEOs) on March 20, but with little effect, as complaints continue to pile up against private schools for delaying or refusing admissions to children from economically weaker sections (EWS). A non-governmental organisation, the Action Committee for RTE Act, in a letter to chief secretary KAP Sinha and top officers of the school education department on July 14, highlighted the continued non-implementation of the RTE Act's provisions despite the court ruling.
'Thousands of eligible children are being denied admission to unaided private schools, and no steps are being taken by the state government to enforce the legal provisions,' wrote the action committee, a group of social activists, along with a list of 78 eligible children from weaker sections who were denied admissions in recent weeks. Of them, 27 children are in Mohali, 10 in Ropar, six in Bathinda, five in Patiala, four in Amritsar, three in Ludhiana and two each in Gurdaspur and Mansa.
Jagjit Singh Dhuri, president of the Federation of Private Schools and Associations, attributed the delay in admitting children to the non-issuance of admission guidelines and the notification for per-child reimbursement by the state government. 'Private schools are not against implementing the RTE provisions, but it is not feasible for them to admit children without a clear mechanism for admissions and reimbursement. We have repeatedly requested the state and district authorities to do the needful,' he claimed.
Section 12(2) of the RTE Act requires the government to reimburse all private schools for reserving 25% of their entry-level seats for children from EWS and disadvantaged groups. In many states, private unaided schools receive reimbursement equal to either the per-child expenditure incurred by the state in government schools or the actual amount charged from the child, whichever is lower.
While a member of the management of a private school in Mohali said that the authorities in most states notify the per-child reimbursement before June 30, the education officer (elementary) of a district in the state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was awaiting instructions from the department regarding admission and reimbursement to schools. According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data, Punjab has 7,704 private unaided recognised schools.
It may be recalled that the RTE Act 2009 mandated private schools to admit in class I children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood to the extent of 25% of the strength of that class, and to provide free and compulsory elementary education till its completion. However, the then government in the state framed the Punjab RTE Rules in 2011, providing that children from disadvantaged groups must first seek admission in government schools, and they could approach unaided schools for admission only after getting a no-objection certificate from government schools on the ground of non-availability of seats or other reasons. As a result, there were no admissions of children from disadvantaged groups in private schools in the state under the RTE Act.
However, the high court in February this year struck down Rule 7(4) of the Punjab RTE Rules, 2011 and ordered immediate implementation of the EWS quota. Last week, the court also issued a notice to the state government on a public interest litigation seeking a CBI investigation into Rule 7(4) of the Punjab RTE Rules. The petitioner, former IAS officer Jagmohan Singh Raju, asserted that Rule 7(4) was 'unconstitutional, corrupt, and deliberately crafted' to serve the commercial interests of private schools at the cost of disadvantaged children's rights. The matter has been fixed for September 22.
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