CHENNAI: PrivateE schools in Tamil Nadu submitted false claims totalling `5 crore for reimbursement of RTE fees during the last academic year.
The Department of School Education found that schools allegedly submitted multiple fake entries for the 25 per cent seats reserved for students belonging to weaker sections and economically disadvantaged groups under Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009.
Following the Centre’s refusal to release its share, the State government in 2015-16 decided to bear the total cost incurred towards this scheme.
Accordingly, `97 crore was sanctioned based on claims submitted by private schools during that academic year.
The State wing of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was assigned the task of cross-checking data submitted by schools, which was when they found several discrepancies.
“School authorities had listed names of students who were not admitted to their institutions under the RTE quota and students who had never been admitted in the institutions at all,” said a senior official from the School Education Department.
After removing all duplication, the SSA released `92 crore for nearly 87,200 students under this scheme. The official added that duplication attempts has delayed the release of funds to genuine claims.
For 2016-17, the State government sanctioned nearly `125 crore in the revised budget estimate for the scheme.
“We have spotted discrepancies in data submitted by schools even this year and so far we have released `80 crore for students in nearly 4,500 schools. The remaining funds will be released in the coming week after verification,” a senior SSA official told Express.
To bring in more transparency, the entire RTE application process was made online this academic year. The online portal designed exclusively for this purpose requires applicants to upload necessary documents apart from address proof.
Out of the 1.2 lakh vacant RTE seats, the department received close to 64,000 applications as on Wednesday.