Nagpur, Right to education admissions for 2021-22 to start on Mar 3 | Nagpur News – Times of India

NAGPUR: Even though the state education department has declared that RTE admission process for 2021-22 academic session will start from March 3, many schools say they are not participating. They claimed that the government has not reimbursed their past dues and hence, it makes no sense to participate.
This is specifically for free 25% seats in private unaided schools.
RTE Foundation, a group representing school trustees, has been repeatedly warning the state education department of a boycott if their dues were not cleared by the end of 2020-2021 financial year. The association’s founder-president Sachin Kalbande said since there is no chance of even ‘a single paisa’, they have decided to pull out of the admission process.
“The government can’t have a dictatorial attitude wherein it’s the schools who have to make all the adjustments. We are supposed to provide free admission, we are supposed to be understanding about delay in reimbursement and we are also supposed to follow all government directives without exception,” said Kalbande.
This year, many members of RTE Foundation in Nagpur refused to register in the RTE portal. Kalbande said, “I have repeatedly provided proof to the education department on how they have delayed payment to genuine schools citing flimsy reasons. These are budget schools that are struggling with their finances and it’s unfortunate that government itself is creating a mess.”
He added that in a normal year, delay in payment of the free 25% seats would have been offset by those 75% who clear their dues. “But this year, nobody is paying fee and it’s the government who is to blame for this mess,” said Kalbande.
RTE activist Shahid Sharif said this will deprive many students of their right to a seat in schools. Sharif said, “Last year, there were over 600 schools which had registered in Nagpur for the process, but now there are just over 500 in the system. The education department has to realize that it needs to work closely with schools and ensure transparency in its dealings regarding RTE.”