Unrecognised schools across the state have to seek “recognition” in order to admit 25 per cent poor students under the RTE quota. The government will reimburse the amount for the RTE quota only in recognised schools. In Hyderabad alone, the department of secondary education has declared over 300 private schools as “unrecognised” two mon-ths ago, while as per estimates there are nearly 10,000 unrecognised schools across the state.

Most unrecognised schools exist in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Nellore, and Warangal. Under the Right to Education Act (RTE), which came into force on April 1, 2010, all the schools will have to seek recognition from the respective government agencies. The schools have to comply with certain norms, such as the maintenance of a stipulated teacher-student ratio in class rooms, playgrounds and qualified teachers. However, the unrecognised schools hardly fulfill these norms.