CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has stayed a single judge’s order directing the state government to bear the entire cost of education of students admitted to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu, while hearing an appeal filed by the school education department, said, “It is the contention of the state government pleader that under section 12 (2) of the RTE Act, an unaided school cannot claim more fees than the fees at aided and government schools from the students admitted under the 25% category.” Issuing notice to the respondents returnable on September 14, 2023, the bench ordered maintenance of the status quo till then.
State government pleader P Muthukumar, representing the school education department, pressed for staying the operation of the single judge’s order by contending that if the state has to bear the entire costs, it would incur an additional financial burden.
Justice M Dhandapani, in a recent order based on a petition filed by the parent of a student admitted under the RTE Act in Vellore district seeking distribution of textbooks and uniforms without cost, had directed the state government to bear the entire cost of education of such children admitted in private schools.
Challenging this order, the school education department said as per the relevant sections of the RTE Act, 2009, the school providing education to children under the Act shall be reimbursed with the fees to the extent of ‘per-child expenditure’ which shall be the expenditure incurred by the state government for a child in government school or the fee, fixed by the TN Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, except the costs of textbooks, notebooks and uniforms.
“... all the students have to pay the fee for textbooks and notebooks. The prescribed fee does not include both the above components (textbooks and notebooks). A similar condition applies to school uniform also,” the petition stated.
Saying that the government had established elementary schools with all necessary facilities in 97.5% of the 92,234 habitations in the state, it was submitted that as per the Act, no child admitted to private school is entitled to fee reimbursement.
Notwithstanding the foregoing provision in the Act, the government has reimbursed fees for the welfare of the disadvantaged and weaker sections since 2013-14. The department also informed the court that the Centre is not even reimbursing the fee to children admitted into preschool education as provided by the Act.