Private schools in the state are divided over implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, for which a notification was issued by the state government recently. The government has ordered that the provisions of RTE, ensuring 25 per cent of seats for the underprivileged children in any neighbourhood schools, including the private ones, should be implemented from the 2012-13 academic year.
A meeting of the Karnataka State Private School’s Management Federation (KSPSMF), Karnataka Unaided Schools Managements' Association (KUSMA) and CBSE and ICSE schools was held to discuss the fallout of government notification in Bengaluru on Tuesday. After the meeting, KSPSMF made it clear that it is not against RTE, but wants the government to implement it from the 2013-14 academic year. But KUSMA wants to approach the Supreme Court against omitting minority schools from the purview of the RTE. CBSE and ICSE schools have decided to wait until a further notification.
Federation honourary president and MLC Puttanna said the government should postpone RTE implementation by a year. “Majority of the schools have completed the admission process. “Till now, the government has not consulted private schools on the reservation, identifying neighborhood schools, fee reimbursement and other issues. Suddenly it wants to implement the Act from this year. It is highly impossible,” he said.
But he ruled out contesting RTE implementation in the Supreme Court, saying the federation is looking for consensus. CBSE and ICSE school managements too decided not to approach the apex court until the government comes out with the admission norms under RTE. “We had given a lot of suggestions, but the government has not considered any of them while issuing the notification,” Mr Puttanna added.
But KUSMA wanted to go to the Supreme Court against keeping minority schools out of RTE ambit. KUSMA past president G.S. Sharma said, “We are not against RTE, but it is not fair to keep minority schools out of RTE. We will approach the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.”