CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday told the Madras High Court it can’t implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act in CBSE and ICSE schools because these schools are not governed by the fee structure fixed by the government, unlike in matriculation schools.
State government pleader (State GP) A Edwin Prabhakar made the submission before the first bench of acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq when a petition filed by V Eswaran, Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam of Coimbatore, regarding admissions under RTE Act came up for hearing.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that admissions are being denied by certain schools in the state citing the one kilometre distance rule between the residence and school, but Andhra Pradesh government framed rules in this connection to enable admission irrespective of the distance.
He wanted the court to issue directions to bring schools following CBSE and ICSE curriculum too under the purview of RTE Act as the state government has got powers to do so.
However, the government submitted that as it determines the fee structure for matriculation schools and, based on this structure, it is paying the fee for students admitted under the RTE Act quota. However, as the government cannot fix the fee structure for CBSE and ICSE schools, it is unable to implement the Act in these schools.
He also told the court that there is an elementary school run by the government within one km and a middle school within three km; there are surplus teachers in about 5,000 schools but the student strength is very poor. Thus incurs financial burden on the government.
Directing the government to file a detailed report on the number of applications submitted under the RTE Act for admission and the number of admissions provided, the bench adjourned the case to June 18 for further hearing.