Bhopal: Bring all private schools under RTE Act, MPCPCR to school education minister

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MPCPCR) has recommended to the Madhya Pradesh government to bring all private schools in the state, including minority educational institutions, under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The government can make a rule to do it, he said.

The commission has written a letter to the minister for school education Inder Singh Parmar making a recommendation to this effect. It may be mentioned here that minority educational institutions are exempted from the ambit of the RTE Act and are not mandatorily required to admit students under the RTE.

Member of the commission Brajesh Chauhan told Free Press that there are 30,000 private schools in the state. Of these, 26,000 private schools are required to give admissions to children of eligible families under the RTE. There are still 4,000 private schools in the state which don’t come under the RTE. Out of these 4000 schools, around 2,000 schools have been closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chauhan alleged that many leading private schools were using the stratagem of ensuring that a majority of the members in the school management committees were from the minority communities. “This should stop,” he said.

“We want that the remaining 2000 schools should be brought under RTE so that the dream of parents from poor backgrounds, making a living by selling tea or cleaning utensils etc. can be fulfilled and their children can