Stern action against schools seeking fees from RTE kids

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S R Srinivas on Saturday warned private schools in the state of stern action if they collect fee from students admitted under the Right to Education (RTE) quota.

Following complaints filed with the department by parents, alleging that the schools were demanding fee, the minister said, “I agree that the reimbursement of RTE amount is delayed. But keeping that as a reason, schools have no powers to collect the fee from children admitted under the RTE quota.”

The minister assured that the dues to private schools towards RTE reimbursement will be cleared soon.

This year also it is doubtful whether government school kids will get the second set of uniforms. Though the chief minister recently instructed officials of primary and secondary education department not to wait for funds from union government and make arrangements to provide the second set of uniforms, the officials from the department said, “It is doubtful.”

“We have brought this to the notice of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and expecting more funds this time. The second set of uniforms are provided under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme, under which we get financial assistance from MHRD. We will wait till the end of July and decide about the second set of uniforms,” S R Umashankar, principal secretary of the department of primary and secondary education, said.

During the 2018-19 academic year, the second set of uniforms were not provided as the state government did not receive funds from MHRD.

Compulsory Kannada

Following the request by several private unaided schools affiliated to other boards requesting for official order from their respective boards to teach Kannada as a second or first language, the chief minister has communicated to CBSE and ICSE, requesting them to respect the law of the land and issue guidelines to schools.

Umashankar said they were constantly in touch with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as well as the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and stepping up pressure on the boards to make Kannada compulsory as the first or second language in schools in Karnataka.

P C Jaffer, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said schools could continue teaching two-second languages. He pointed out that the first language which was learnt by children was of high proficiency level, while the second language too was taught fairly well, though not as elaborately as the first language.

He said the third language was only of an introductory level.