New Delhi, Feb. 24: Private schools may soon be constitutionally bound to reserve seats for impoverished students up to Class V.

The Centre plans to bring private schools within the ambit of the Right to Education Bill, aimed at implementing the fundamental right to primary education, senior officials have told The Telegraph.

The bill was first drafted in 2005 but was dumped after it hit hurdles. Under the earlier draft, only government-run schools had to reserve seats for the poor.

“Those who violate the (redrafted) RTE Bill, once it becomes law, will also be violating the Constitution,” a senior official said.

The National Democratic Alliance government had got the Constitution amended in 2002, making primary education a fundamental right. The RTE Bill is the accompanying legislation to enforce the right and will subsidise tuition and books for the reserved-category pupils. State governments are expected to pick up the tab.

Most states now offer subsidies to private schools when they are set up. Many of these states require the school administration — under a contract — to ensure that a certain percentage of seats is reserved for the poor. Hospitals, too, are bound by similar contracts in many states to treat the poor at cheap rates.

But the contracts in education are rarely enforced because of “inherent lacunae” in them, a human resource development ministry official said.

“Besides, the schools, at worst, violate a contract. Only the government can haul them up, if it wishes to. A citizen’s right is not being violated, as things stand,” the official explained.

The contract-based quotas effectively become a channel for backdoor entry by children of powerful people — those with connections in the state government — the official said.

The committee redrafting the RTE Bill is, however, yet to decide the volume of the quota. Nor has it worked out the system of inspections or the punishment for violation.

The criteria for determining who is poor enough to receive the benefit are still being discussed.

“Consultations are still on. The redrafted bill ought to be ready soon,” a member of the committee said.

The new draft is likely to provide for stricter quality checks than its predecessor, sources said.

Educators had objected to the earlier draft saying it ignored the quality of education to be provided. State governments, on the other hand, had refused to foot the subsidy bill.

A separate committee is preparing a set of quality guidelines that all schools —government and private — must follow. They will be enforced independently of the RTE Bill, and deal with matters such as curricula and teacher-student ratio.