According to the information received from Chhattisgarh Directorate of Public Instruction, under the Right to Free and Compulsory Child Education Act (RTE), the fee reimbursement amount for the students studying from nursery to 8th for the year 2022-23 from January 2024 to April 2024 to private schools in the year 2022-23 is Rs 185.91.
Against Rs 20.71 crore and fee reimbursement of students studying in class 9th to 12th, a total amount of Rs 134 crore 30 lakh 27 thousand 339 has been transferred to the accounts of private schools. Therefore, the process of payment of the remaining pending amount of about Rs 70 crore in the year 2022-23 is under process.
The time for reimbursement for the year 2023-24 is fixed for the end of the session in August. After the schools raise claims and objections within the time limit, action will be taken for payment of fee reimbursement amount. The Directorate of Public Instruction has clarified that the news regarding pending fee reimbursement to private schools amounting to about Rs 285 crore under RTE is untrue. The material position in this regard has been clarified as above.
About Right To Education
The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards.
Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010. The title of the RTE Act incorporates the words ‘free and compulsory’. ‘Free education’ means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.
‘Compulsory education’ casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age group. With this, India has moved forward to a rights based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right as enshrined in the Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act.
