Karnataka Government is rethinking on RTE Karnataka Quota
As Per The Karnataka Government Cabinet Minister Mr. Tanveer Sait, The Karnataka State Government is re-thinking on RTE quota, the reason cited is Hike in reimbursement expenditure, falling student strength in Government schools, With State Government of Karnataka having spent Rs.685 Crore science 2012 on reimbursing fee of students under the RTE quota in private schools, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait on Monday September 2017, said the Government is rethinking the 25% quota under the RTE Act.
Minister ruled out any impact on students already admitted under the Quota and said they would receive education till class 10.
Karnataka State is the leading in the implementation of reservation clause under RTE, This academic year the state government is estimated to have spent Rs.350 crore on fee reimbursement of 5.22 Lakh children’s studying in 11,918 schools.
“About 5,000 schools are surviving only because of the funds they are availing under RTE quota“, Minister Tanveer Sait said.
There is steep hike in expenditure on reimbursement this year as the state government has increased expenditure per child from Rs.5,924/- to Rs.8000/- for pre-prmary classes and from Rs.11,848/- to Rs.16,000/0 for others, besides this, the number of students admitted under RTE quota has been steadily increasing over the years.
Karnataka Development Authority recommended diverting funds used for reimbursement towards betterment of infrastructure in Government run schools. Mr. Sait said the Central Governments share of funds, which was 65% in the yer 2015-16, declined to 60% in 2016-17 academic year.
The Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development) has approved State plan of Rs.1,809 Cror for the academic year 2016-17, it has agreed to fund only 438.5 Cror, which is a little less than 25%, Mr. Tanveer sait said, added that they have taken up the matter with MHRD Ministry Prakash Javadekar who then assured them of additional sanctioning of Rs.100 Crore funds.