Core education statistics are not reliable enough to hold anyone to account

The Right to Education Act's 25% reservation in private schools is unevenly implemented and weakly monitored

Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act requires private unaided schools to reserve at least a quarter of entry-level seats for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sections, with the state reimbursing the cost. CAG audits in more than one state have found deficiencies — chronic staff shortages and ineffective grievance redressal in monitoring in one state, delayed implementation and admission irregularities in another. Delayed reimbursement has periodically prompted private-school associations to threaten non-cooperation, and definitional ambiguity continues to generate litigation with divergent High Court outcomes. Implementation quality genuinely varies by state, with at least one state cited as implementing the provision without dilution. Evidence confidence: Medium-High — the CAG is an authoritative source and more than one state shows independently documented problems, but the audit findings were accessed through secondary reporting rather than the primary audit reports, and the national picture beyond the states named is not established.