No better time to reform RTE Act implementation

Recent delay in opening the RTE Act admission portal sparks discussion on implementation and funding issues in India.

 A recent furore over delay in opening the admission portal for Right to Education Act for the academic year 2025-26 has not only informed people about the existence of such an Act but it has also opened up a discussion for the regulation of the Act and its implementation.

The Right to Education (RTE) Act, enacted in India on August 4, 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14. 

While the portal would usually be opened by mid-April and the admission process would end by May, the unusual delay of over a month has put the parents waiting for admission under RTE, at a crossroads.  

Despite facing dilutions, under RTE, a considerable number of students looking for education in private schools benefited, but the recent developments in the centre-State conflict in releasing fund meant for school education have directly affected the admission processes.  

Though the School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi recently said that he had written a letter to the Centre seeking details about the pending dues under the RTE Act, the State announced that it would bear the Centre’s dues too.

As the Madras High Court was hearing a case pertaining to the delay in admissions under RTE Act, based on a petition filed by V. Eswaran, an administrator of the Coimbatore-based organisation Marumalarchi Iyakkam, the court has directed the Union Government to submit details of funds due to Tamil Nadu under the 25% reservation quota mandated by the RTE Act. 

Anand Raj, a social activist based in Madurai, said that a Right to Information Act reply from the State government regarding the fund released by the Union government for the RTE Act from 2009-10 till 2018-19 revealed that while ₹20,300 crore was to be released, only ₹8,446 crore was released.