BENGALURU: With the financial year coming to an end, private schools in the state are in a dilemma, as the state government has not yet cleared the dues towards Right To Education (RTE) reimbursement. This is causing inconvenience to them, as they are not being able to complete the audit process. As per data available from schools, state department of primary and secondary education owes close to Rs 600 crore to private schools. Speaking about it, D Shahshi Kumar general secretary of Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka said, “Many schools are waiting to get the reimbursement for the last two years. Some have received for 2017-18 but not for 2018-19,” said Shashi Kumar.
There are over 12,000 private schools across the state that are waiting to get their reimbursement. “The department even received a contempt notice for not declaring per child expenditure. Despite that, the department has not bothered to clear the dues,” Shashi Kumar added.
A management representative of a private school in the city said, “My auditor raised objections while doing audits. I cannot put this burden on other parents. The government must understand our problems too.”SR Umashankar, principal secretary of the department of primary and secondary education said, “The delay was because of the late submission of claims by some of the schools. As they have submitted the bills now, the same will be cleared by April first or second week.”
Meanwhile, the principal secretary has advised school managements to show these dues as receivables in accounts, and complete the auditing process for the financial year.The department estimation says the dues will go up to Rs 800 crore, of which Rs 200 crore has been cleared, as the amount was released by the Finance Department recently.