Private schools across Chhattisgarh have announced a non-cooperation movement against the government over demands of increasing the reimbursement amount provided under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 or RTE (Right to Education).
The school owners are alleging that the government is insensitive towards their long standing demand to suitably compensate for their expenses on the education of poor children.
Rajeev Gupta, chairman of the Chhattisgarh Private School Management Association (CPSMA), told The Hindu the non-cooperation would mean private schools would not cooperate in any work of the School Education department, nor would any of their letters/notices/orders be responded to.
“These order mostly pertain to periodic updates about the progress of students who take admission under the RTE or about audits on compliance of RTE norms. Apart from that our buses are used for government for their events. We will not provide those either,” he said.
Under the provisions of the RTE, 25% of the seats in entry-level classes in private schools have to be reserved for students from weaker sections of society. Mr. Gupta said the non-cooperation at this juncture might affect the admission process for the next academic session as the student registration and nodal verification process was on between February 16 and March 31. This would be followed by lottery and allotment of schools and school admissions which begins in August.
