-


The ABC of the RTE

Free and compulsory education of children in the 6 to 14 age group in India became a fundamental right when, in 2002, Article 21-A was inserted in the 86th Amendment to the Constitution. This right was to be governed by law, as the state may determine, and the enforcing legislation for this came eight years later, as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010, or the RTE Act.

We belive that the RTE Act is a game-changer in that it establishes that the onus to ensure free and compulsory education lies on the state. However, the ‘compulsory’ and ‘state liability’ part needs to be imbibed by the educational bureaucracy, which is now lacking.

Loopholes in the RTE

All these clauses look very promising on paper, but for numerous reasons they hardly materialize. There are several schools that do not follow the rule laid down by the government. All the states allocate funds to make sure that they abide by the 25% rule or the schools are promised that the fees will be reimbursed at the end of the year once they have admitted the EWS children. However, there are various discrepancies in the implementation of RTE Act.
According to the statistics produced by the District Information System for Education (DISE), The percentage of total enrollment in private school (Classes I-V) 2013–2014 is 61% only. The number of seats expected to be reserved for Grade I under the 25 percent quota in private schools, according to the government estimates is 59,932 whereas the number of seats expected to be reserved for Grade I under the 25 percent quota in private schools [calculated from DISE 2013–14 without exempting minority institutions] is 1,79,777. The number of reserved seats filled in academic year 2013–14 is just 18,946. Only 32 percent of seats has been filled for the current academic year (2013–14) under this quota.
RTE Dentention Policy
The RTE detention policy was a topic that was debated throught the first session of the CRESI.
The Lok Sabha passed The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill in 2017 which allows detention of school students in class 5 and 8. Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar moved the bill which proposed the amendment seeking revocation of ''no detention'' policy in classes 5 and 8, enabling states now to allow schools to fail the child if he/she fails in either or both classes and withhold their promotion to the next standard.
The original RTE Act draft which came into force on April 1, 2010 -- stipulated that no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education.
Success Story of the RTE
Despite the flaws of the RTE Act, it has accomplished its essential goals:
The RTE Act is primarily for providing education to the under-privileged children, and as it requires no schooling cost, parents are sending their kids to schools without any burden.Today, approximately 35 million to 60 million children are not in schools. As the Act promises education to be provided to every child, there is a possibility of a massive increase on the literacy rate of India. Along with education, employment of teachers and staffs also seem to increase.India has almost 19% of the world’s children and is ranked as third in the count of illiteracy. The RTE Act is an exercise to increase this rank and move towards an educated India, starting with educating the youth.
A law is as good or as bad as its implementation. It is unfair to blame legislation alone for the sad state of affairs without implementing it in full measure, especially its enabling provisions. Open-minded adoption of these provisions, keeping the child in mind, can go a long way in radically transforming our school education sector.

(Opinionated Editorial) - The Hindu
CRESI


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
(editorial 2)                        Pros about keeping a gun August 30, 2018                     - by Shreya LN and Yamini R V Mohite First of all, in Qatar, possession of a firearm without a licence is punishable by a jail sentence of up to fourteen years. In committee, the pros and cons of civilians owning guns was being spoken about and the delegate of Afghanistan had quite a lot to say. In Afghanistan, firearms are provided to the civilians, or bought by the civilians with a license. The delegate of Afghanistan strongly stated that ‘most’ of the citizens use these guns for self-defence. It is very much possible that the civilians themselves may become non state actors by the influence of these firearms. But, this would not really happen if the background of the person the firearm or the licence for the firearm is being sold to is first checked and only then the licen...
Read more

The last session

-
Image
The two Superpowers, China and the United States of America made two separate blocs. These blocs made two working papers as a draft to make a resolution. These two blocs were the only two blocs in the DISEC general assembly. The working paper of the bloc headed by the delegate of the United States of America was sponsored by the delegate of South Korea, the delegate of Germany, the delegate of the United Kingdom and the delegate of France. The working paper of the delegate of China was sponsored by the delegate of Russia, delegate of Iraq, delegate of Iran, delegate of Nepal and delegate of DPRK. The working paper of the delegate of China stated the need for an international organization like the ITU to help curb Cyber-warfare. The delegate of USA stated that that the UN Security Council can make a sub-body who's members would be elected by the general assembly and would create an international cyber-code. This will enable cyber-criminals to be caught. The bloc led by the delegate...
Read more

United States; Divided Thoughts

-
Image
It is a widely acknowledged fact that the United States conducts itself in a hypocritical manner, and contradicts itself repeatedly in international forums. The Disarmament and International Security Council proved to be no different, and the press conference revealed the double standards the government has for its citizens. The United States has conducted itself in an entirely unfit manner, but somehow, it remains unsurprising. When asked informally, the delegate of the US said that she would refuse to answer any questions in the press conference, so it came as a surprise when she spoke on gun control regulations within the US. The delegate stated that the American government believes that the ownership of guns gives its citizens much needed peace of mind, and protection. When a member of the press quoted the horrifying statistics of gun violence in only 2018 within the US- Total number of incidents being 38,451; number of deaths being 9,650; number of children below the age of ...
Read more