1 day Ago
Pune: "The Executive Parent Teachers' Association's resolution does not mention ‘tuition fees'; the bank account of the school was in the name of the institution; there is a slight discrepancy in address documents; the lease is not registered; the online documents are blurred." These are some of the technical issues the education department is citing while denying fee reimbursements of the Right to Education (RTE) Act's 25% reserved seats to 453 schools in Pune district, claimed representatives of Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahamandal and Independent English Schools Association (IESA) on Saturday. According to them, when these arbitrary and technical reasons are not a hindrance at the time of RTE admission, why are they being pointed out at the time of reimbursement? Addressing a press conference, IESA president Jagruti Dharmadhikari said, "Our primary concern is the retroactive implementation of a 2025 govt resolution (GR) for the academic year 2023-24, which is legally questionable.
The reimbursements for 2023-24 are remaining, and we have the documents asked for in 2023-24. But if you retrospectively ask for new documents for 2023-24 as per the GR of 2025, we cannot produce them." According to the July 2023 GR, schools need only 10 key indicators for self-accreditation.
However, representatives of private schools complained that local authorities have been demanding additional documentation not mandated in the RTE Act. This includes specific wording requirements in EPTA resolutions and stringent banking account specifications. The financial impact on self-financed schools has been severe, with some institutions teaching over 300 RTE students without receiving promised govt compensation.
"Schools are caught in an impossible situation — we cannot charge fees from RTE students, yet govt withholds reimbursements on technicalities," Dharmadhikari said. The associations want immediate withdrawal of the retrospective GR application, implementation of uniform criteria across Maharashtra, and prompt payment of pending reimbursements. "If we do not get our demands met in 15 days, we will start sending leaving certificates of students to the education officer," they said.
Sharad Gosavi, director of primary education for Maharashtra, said, "I spoke to the education officer for Pune district on Friday and asked him not to deny any reimbursement applications where students have been admitted. If there are any problems in the documentation, they should be resolved but denying reimbursements to eligible schools will not happen.".
