School quota: No extra burden on parents, says Kapil Sibal

Click to play video

New Delhi: Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal says he hopes the burden of 25 per cent school quota for the poor will not be passed onto other parents. He assures that the government and schools will work out a way to fund the additional expenditure.

Speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate, he said that the schools would find ways not to pass the monetary burden on parents of the more affluent students.

"We made some calculations on this and under the act if the school has taken no benefit from the government at all and this will vary from state to state the government contribution annually will vary from 6000 to 19000. we made a calculation," he said.

But when asked whether the amount would be sufficient to cover the cost school charges, he said, "It may not be sufficient. Now in the 12th plan what we are trying to do is that even for disadvantaged children in private schools we want the government to subsidise their uniform and their textbook. That's a proposal in the 12th plan. I hope it passes through," he said.

But he also said that it may not happen for five years.

"The other thing we want the school management to do is that if they have their surpluses and if they have their reserves may be part of that can be spent here. If not that then you have many corporates committed to corporate social responsibility with 2 per cent of their entire turnover for corporate social responsibility. Schools can actually tap their resources so that there is no burden on parents," Sibal said.