Schools talk tough on RTE arrears

Even though the State government had released Rs 45 crore in the beginning of this year towards reimbursement of fees for admissions under RTE quota in private schools for 2012-13, a number of schools claim that they have not received the money till now. 

A meeting of more than 400 managements of various private schools was held on Sunday under the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association  where this was one of the major issues discussed. 

Speaking to Deccan Herald, V R V Reddy, vice-president, KUSMA said: “Our stand is clear, if the arrears are not cleared, we will not admit students under the 25 percent quota in the next academic year. How long can we go on like this? We have been waiting for ten months. The management has its own duties like paying salaries. We will meet the Commissioner of Public Instruction,” said Reddy. 

School managements complained that a number of textbooks have either arrived very late or have not arrived at all.  “There have been a lot of problems since the government took the sole responsibility of distributing textbooks. We want to ask them to allow us to go back to the old system where schools were allowed to order from other publishers,” said Reddy.