RIGHT TO EDUCATION:What,Why and How?

India is a vast and huge country. According to the Preamble of our country, we follow the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. India is also a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. We are approaching the 66^th year of Independence and we still face a number of hurdles and challenges. The path to attaining economic development and stability is long and arduous. However, we Indians are known to be fighters and we have hope that we will be a global super-power someday. We face a lot of challenges as of today and these include poverty, population growth, poor healthcare and sanitation, poor urban and rural infrastructure, high infant mortality rate, low per-capita income, corruption, malnutrition, etc among many others.

One of the biggest and greatest challenges we face today though is from the field of education. A huge section of society in India is still illiterate. India currently has the world’s largest population of illiterates. Although literacy rate grew from 12% in 1947 to 74% in 2011, a six-fold improvement, it is still much below the global average of 84% literacy rate. The gender disparity is even more disappointing. Around 82% of men were literate in India whereas only around 65% of women were literate. This is slowly improving and the disparity is reducing but it should happen faster and in a better way.

To expedite the process of educating the people of the country from all parts and corners of this nation, various Governments over the years, be it state or central Governments, have legislated and implemented a number of schemes. Some of these being The National Literacy Mission, launched in 1988; The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school, The Mid-day Meal scheme and various other initiatives by NGOs and Charities like Rotary Clubs, Lions’ Clubs, ITC etc.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Indian legislation enacted by the Parliament on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.

The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies minimum norms in elementary schools. It requires all private schools to reserve 25% of seats to children (to be reimbursed by the state as part of the public-private partnership plan). Kids are admitted in to private schools based on caste based reservations.  It also prohibits all unrecognized schools from practice, and makes provisions for no donation or capitation fees and no interview of the child or parent for admission. The Act also provides that no child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education. There is also a provision for special training of school drop-outs to bring them up to par with students of the same age.

The passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 marks a historic moment for the children of India. This Act serves as a building block to ensure that every child has his or her right (as an entitlement) to get a quality elementary education, and that the State, with the help of families and communities, fulfils this obligation. Few countries in the world have such a national provision to ensure both free and child-centered, child-friendly education. This Act is also important because it is inclusive in nature and brings into its ambit the SCs, STs and OBCs as well as the disabled, HIV positive children, transgenders, orphans etc. This will result in free and quality education for all sections of society. This in turn will lead to increase in literacy rates, increase in employment, reduction in poverty and thereby benefitting the nation on the whole.

Central and state governments shall share financial responsibility for RTE. The central government shall prepare estimates of expenditures. State governments will be provided a percentage of these costs. The central government may request the Finance Commission to consider providing additional resources to a state in order to carry out the provisions of RTE. The state government shall be responsible for providing the remaining funds needed to implement. There will be a funding gap which needs to be supported by partners from civil society, development agencies, corporate organisations and citizens of the country.

All schools must comply with infrastructure and teacher norms for an effective learning environment. Two trained teachers will be provided for every sixty students at the primary level. Teachers are required to attend school regularly and punctually, complete curriculum instruction, assess learning abilities and hold regular parent-teacher meetings. The number of teachers shall be based on the number of students rather than by grade. The state shall ensure adequate support to teachers leading to improved learning outcomes of children. The community and civil society will have an important role to play in collaboration with the SMCs to ensure school quality with equity. The state will provide the policy framework and create an enabling environment to ensure RTE becomes a reality for every child.

RTE has also come under considerable amount of criticism. Some say it has not been drafted in a right manner and it has been pushed through into legislation in a hasty manner without having done proper preparations on the ground and without having raised adequate awareness and preparedness for the program. The quality of education provided by the government system remains in question. There are shortage of teachers, bad infrastructure and facilities and a lot of corruption in the system. There are also frequent allegations of government schools being riddled with absenteeism and mismanagement and appointments are based on political convenience. Despite the allure of free lunch-food in the government schools, many parents send their children to private schools.

The RTE if implemented and enforced in the right manner can do wonders and actually put the education of common man in India back on track and assist in achieving the goals of the country very soon. At the same time we should keep in mind that just to get a large number of people in the ‘literate’ category, we should hasten or hurry the whole process of education and at no cost should the quality of education be compromised. After all we Indians are known all over the world to be academically brilliant and scholarly individuals. We have Unity in Diversity.