The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, tabled recently in the Karnataka Legislature, has revealed that the State government reimbursed an excess fee of ₹7.07 crore for students enrolled under the Right to Education Act-2009 (RTE Act) to the private-unaided schools during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21.
In accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act rules-2, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) reimburses the fees of students enrolled under RTE quota in private unaided schools. The Karnataka High Court had, during the pandemic, directed private schools in the State to provide a 15% discount in fee for the academic year 2020-21, taking note of facilities being underutilised due to academic sessions being held only online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on court’s directions, the department in November 2021 issued instructions to private unaided schools to collect only 85% of the tuition fees collected during the year 2019-20 as the fee for the year 2020-21.
However, data shows that the order was not adhered to. “Scrutiny of the data from the RTE portal related to reimbursement of the tuition fees for RTE students in respect of unaided private schools showed that the schools did not adhere to the court order and claimed excess fee. The government reimbursed the excess fee of ₹7.07 crore claimed by the schools,” the CAG’s report on “Functioning of Primary Educational Institutions in Karnataka” stated.
No mechanism to monitor fee
According to Section 48 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, no recognised educational institution can levy or collect any fees or charges or donations or other payments, beyond what is prescribed.
The department, however, did not have any mechanism to monitor the quantum of fees collected by the private unaided institutions and verify whether they complied with the requirements of the Act. “Absence of oversight resulted in violations of fee regulations impacting the affordability and accessibility of education for students,” the report stated.
The CAG also identified that in recent years, enrollment has increased in private educational institutions compared to government-funded schools in the State.
Government schools constitute 72% of the total number of schools in the State whereas private schools constitute 28%. However, in respect of enrolment, 51% of the children were enrolled in private schools and the remaining 49% were enrolled in government schools between 2017 and 2022, it revealed.
Subject teachers
Though the overall Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in the State was sufficient, the DSEL could not ensure availability of adequate subject specific teachers and medium appropriate teachers in several schools.
According to the norms of RTE Act, the PTR of primary and upper primary schools were stipulated as 30:1 and 35:1 respectively. However, the PTR in government schools is increased from 21.63 in 2017-18 to 26.19 in 2021-22.
It was observed that the PTR in upper primary schools increased in all the 34 educational districts during the period from 2017-18 to 2021-22. .
Single-teacher schools
Section 25 of the RTE Act, requires that there should be two teachers in each school with enrolment up to 60. However, there were single-teacher schools in existence in the State even as of 2021-22. The audit observed that the number of single-teacher schools increased from 4,652 during 2017-18 to 6616 schools during 2021-22.
Teachers’ vacancies
Against the total sanctioned strength of 1,88,415 teachers in the State, 48,182 teacher posts were vacant during 2021-22 which is 26% of the total sanctioned strength. It was observed that vacancy of teachers in rural areas was 27% while in urban areas it was 21%.
A test check of records of Urdu-medium schools in the eight selected districts showed that in 38 Urdu-medium schools, Urdu proficient teachers were not available, and teachers qualified for Kannada medium were deployed.
Published – December 16, 2024 01:14 am IST