VIJAYAWADA: With the state government making it clear that it wants to implement the Right to Education Act (RTE) in letter and spirit, the education department is exploring all options at its disposal to ensure that this is done.
The education department has found the recently announced Amma Vodi scheme to be a major asset in its plans, and if rumours are to be believed, the government would ask managements of private schools to allocate 25 per cent of the seats to the financially-challenged as it has agreed to extend the Amma Vodi scheme to the private educational institutions.
Ever since these rumours started doing the rounds, managements of private educational institutions have sat up and started calculating the pros and cons of such an eventuality.
According to the norms of the Right to Education Act 2009, private schools should provide 25 per cent of their strength to students from Below Poverty Line families, free-of-cost.
The state government has to reimburse the school fees, based on the funds for each student in the government sector or the fee structure of the schools, whichever is less.
While many states have implemented the scheme, there has been no policy in place. The Act came into force in 2009.
The Private School Teachers’ Association had earlier agreed to implement the scheme which will indirectly help the schools increase their strength, without any loss, except in a few corporate schools.
But after bifurcation of the state, the issue was put on the backburner.
Now, the YSRC government has brought the issue forward and is keen to implement it.
Speaking to this newspaper, AP Private Schools’ Association senior vice-president Komaragiri Chandrasekhar said that linking of Amma Vodi with the implementation of 25 per cent free education is not acceptable. He hoped that the state government would take an appropriate decision in this regard.
He stated that the private school managements were ready to implement the RTE Act-2009 and the government should reimburse them, as stated in the Act.
He asserted that Amma Vodi is the main scheme and free education is important. Hence, the government should not link the separate programmes for each other to implement.
School education department joint director M.V. Krishna Reddy said that they have been working out modalities for the implementation of the 25 per cent free education for poor children and no decision has been finalised as of now.
