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say students dissatisfied with scores reducing the reimbursement
awarded by CBSE will have the op- amount. If the government
tion to write a pen-n-paper exam believes that our costs were
when the pandemic is over. reduced because of schools
Stand by for chaos, confusion and closure, then it must answer
litigation. why all government school
Autar Nehru (Delhi) teachers were paid full salaries
during the lockdown. The gov-
MAHARASHTRA ernment cannot have different
Pandemic rules for government and pri-
vate schools. There seems to
opportunism be a malicious intent to push
private schools over the edge
by taking advantage of the
A Kalbande (left): malicious intent pandemic,” says Sachin Kal-
peremptory circular issued
bande, president of the Nag-
on May 19 to Maharashtra’s
21,000 non-minority private
independent (‘unaided’) schools by Rs.400 crore it would have had to pay pur-based RTE Foundation, which
the state’s private primary schools.
represents 3,000 BPS state-wide.
the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Since the RTE Act, 2009 became The government’s callous response
Aghadi (MVA) coalition government, law on April 1, 2010, state govern- to the plight of budget private schools
has dismayed private school manage- ments have been short-changing reinforces mala fides suspected by the
ments battling the vicissitudes of the private schools admitting s.12 (1) (c) RTE Foundation. After all it’s hardly
Covid-19 pandemic, and has raised the children. Although s.12 (2) unambig- a secret that low-fees levying budget
prospects of another round of court- uously requires government to pay private primaries which offer better
room battles. In the circular, the state private schools the per-pupil cost it learning outcomes and all-important
government announced a 60 percent incurs in its own primary/elementary English education, pose an existential
reduction of its obligatory per-pupil (classes I-VIII) schools, it has fudged threat to government primaries expe-
payment to private schools that have its per-pupil expenditure. riencing a steady flight of students to
admitted free-of-charge children from According to the Delhi-based Cen- BPS. In none of the pandemic relief
poor households into classes I-VIII. tre for Policy Research, per-pupil packages announced by the Central
Under s.12 (1) (c) of the landmark expenditure in free-of-charge gov- and/or Maharashtra government has
Right of Children to Free & Compul- ernment schools in Maharashtra is any relief been provided to private
sory Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009, Rs.25,500 per year and the Central unaided school managements to tide
non-minority private schools are government calculates a national over the crisis.
obliged to reserve 25 percent of ca- average of Rs.28,008 per pupil per On the contrary, there’s been con-
pacity in classes I-VIII for poor neigh- year. Against this, the Maharashtra tinuous pressure on them to continue
bourhood children aged between 6-14 state government had committed to pay teachers and staff salaries in
years. However, under s. 12 (2) of to pay private schools Rs.17,760 per full, and incur expenses to switch to
the Act, the State (state or local gov- child per year. But even of this amount online learning. What better time to
ernment) is directed to pay private since the Act was first enforced in the deliver the knockout blow?
schools that admit poor children tu- state in 2011-12, the state government Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)
ition fees equivalent to the per-pupil owes Rs.677 crore to private schools
cost incurred by state/local govern- as arrears for the years 2018-19 and WEST BENGAL
ments in their own primary schools or 2019-20.
actual fees of private schools, if lower. The May 19 circular applicable with Winning education
The May 19 circular, pertaining to retrospective effect from the start of
the recently concluded academic year the recently concluded academic year, card
2020-21 during which all schools could well sound the death knell for
statewide were shut down and chil- the state’s budget private schools n sharp contrast to bjp leaders in-
dren learned as best as they could (BPS) which have been struggling to cluding prime minister Narendra
from home, slashes government pay- stay afloat because of the mandatory IModi and Union home minister
out to schools to Rs.8,000 from the closure of all schools statewide fol- Amit Shah who stormed West Bengal
liable Rs.17,670 per pupil per annum. lowing outbreak of the Covid-19 pan- with over two dozen visits to preach
This enabled the MVA government demic in March 2020. messages of hindutva and dangers
to save a paltry Rs.240 crore of the “There is no official explanation for posed by illegal Muslim immigrants

JUNE 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 15