Private schools in Karnataka allege harassment over ‘excess RTE fee reimbursement’

Bengaluru: Private school managements have alleged harassment by the Department of School Education in the name of refund of excess RTE fee reimbursement between 2012 and 2016.

The association of schools has demanded that the department reveal how it calculated that there was excess payment when the schools had submitted detailed audit reports and the reimbursement was based on the reports.

Several schools in the state are getting notices from local officials of the department, demanding a refund of excess fees. 

Officials were threatening that the recognition of schools would not be renewed if they failed to refund, say managements. 

In one case in Madhugiri taluk, the block education officer (BEO) had issued a notice to a private unaided school, demanding that it refund Rs 8,71,348 for the 2015-16 academic year. The department is demanding that the schools refund between Rs 25,000 and Rs 10 lakh, according to the managements. 

D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “Officials at the local level are harassing school managements in the name of refund of excess fee reimbursement. On what basis did the department arrive at the amounts mentioned? When we have submitted audit reports, how did is it that they paid excess amount and under what heads?”

Shashi Kumar has asked member schools not to pay the refund as demanded by the department. “If the reimbursement is under capital expenditure, we have asked the schools to repay. But not without cross-checking the details under which the department is demanding,” he said.

Prabhakar Urs, president of the Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools, has submitted a petition to the commissioner for school education, raising objections to the notices for refund.

He told DH, “There is a lack of transparency in the calculation of the excess amount. Instead of clarifying to the auditor general’s (AG’s) team, the department is harassing us.”

The AG’s report says that Rs 15 crore was paid in excess to private schools under RTE fee reimbursement between 2012 and 2016. As many as 2,182 schools are on the list.