218 primary unaided private schools without RTE approval

Mumbai: A Right to Information Act (RTI) query has revealed that 218 primary unaided private schools under the purview of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) education department are running without Right to Education (RTE) approval, claimed an association of parents

Mumbai: A Right to Information Act (RTI) query has revealed that 218 primary unaided private schools under the purview of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) education department are running without Right to Education (RTE) approval, claimed an association of parents.

HT Image

The Maharashtra Rajya Vidyarthi, Palak, Shikshak Mahasangh, an association of parents, has alleged that the government’s apathy in taking action has provided an easy escape for many private schools.

Mumbai head of the organisation, Nitin Dalvi, said, “Renewal process for RTE approval requires a school to undergo an inspection. This is not just infrastructural, but also involves financial aspects. School management has to submit their balance sheet along with other documents. This may lead to revelation of various irregularities and thus many prefer to function without the RTE approval.”

Prasad Tulskar of the federation alleged that several schools are continuing without approval.

While receiving RTE approval, it is mandatory for the school administration to submit the balance sheet to the government and parents every year. Dalvi said that if the balance sheets reflect the school’s financial irregularities such as illegal fees, donation and rent among others, the school administration will be in trouble and the RTE approval will not be renewed.

According to Dalvi, the problem lies in the government’s unwillingness to streamline the process. “There is a provision in the regulations which instructs about penalties accumulating in lakhs for missing the renewal. But there is no record of action taken on any school even as various such lists have been put out in the past. This casual approach has only worked in favour of schools violating the RTE norm,” said Dalvi, who has written a letter to the Maharashtra Commissioner of Education demanding monetary fine from such schools.

It is worth noting that these 218 schools are in addition to another 239 schools running without RTE approval in Mumbai.

Apart from escaping the audits, Dalvi claimed that private unaided schools do not renew RTE approval intentionally “Else they will have to participate in the RTE admissions which means reserving 25% of their seats for children from marginalised backgrounds and providing them free education along with other benefits.”

Commissioner of Education, Suraj Mandhare, was unavailable for a comment.