COIMBATORE:The Directorate of Matriculation Schools submitted a claim of over Rs 6 crore on Wednesday to reimburse private schools in Coimbatore and Nilgiris districts for admitting students to free seats under the Right to Education Act.
This is only an approximate amount and the money would be paid only after an auditing team from Chennai scrutinises the schools' records, according to Inspector of Matriculation Schools R Geetha.
As per the RTE Act, 25 percent of seats in private schools should be set apart for students from weaker sections. The government will reimburse the schools their fees. Private schools had recently announced that they would not admit students to the RTE quota this year as the government has not reimbursed them for the admissions made in the last two years.
Following this, the State government gave the School Education Department a loan of Rs 97.05 crore for the reimbursements. It authorised the State Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to utilise the money. The authorities have started collecting details of admissions under the RTE Act.
Of the 338 private schools in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris, 46 are minority-run institutions which are exempted from the RTE Act. The School Education Department does not have details of the number of students admitted under RTE Act in the remaining 292 schools.
The Rs 6.03 crore includes Rs 1.65 crore for the 2013-14 academic year and Rs 4.04 crore for 2014-15 in Coimbatore district. For the Nilgiris, the reimbursement estimate is Rs 4.25 lakh for 2013-14 and Rs 30.14 lakh for 2014-15.