Rights To Education
The Right to Education has(RTE) finally became a reality and guarentees every child in india the most basic fundamental right-the right to education. the Act with its latest ammendment-thhat became operational on april 1 this year,guarentees every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years both free and compulsary education. It is to be recalled that the national government under the leadership Mr. Atal bihari Vajpayee had introduced a flagship programme called "sarva shiksha abhiyan"(SSA) in 2001 for the achievement of of universalisation of elementary education in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th Ammendment to the constitution of India.while both the RTE and SSA had the common aim ie universalisation of education,RTE picks holes in SSA. The minimum standards prescribed by SSA for schools are much lower than those laid by RTE Act.Launched in 2001,the SSA's term expires in 2010. The scheme was by and large successful in bringing the children to the schools. while the SSA achieved the target of enrolling majority of children to school, it could not satisfy many as for the quality of education. Surveys reports show that most of the children who attended the school could learn very little, yet were promoted to the next class.
Sixteen years after the idea was mooted, the bill was introduced in lok sabha on July 31 last year, with the larger target of making India a "knowledge hub" in the future. Speaking about the bill in lok sabha, the HRD minister said," The bill is not just not just about taking children to school. This is a bill that speaks about the physical infrastructureteacher-pupil ratio and qualification of teachers". Talking about the quality of education,the minister said an academic committee would be set up to evaluate the quality of teachers and if the teacher does not have adequate qualification, then he or she will have to acquire it within five years and failing to do so will mean losing the job. The act also ensures 25% reservationin private schools. All the private schools will have to give admission to students belonging to economically weaker sections of society living in the neighbourhood of the schools.
One should laud the central government for taking on this momentous task of ensuring that every child has the right and equal opportunity to be in school. The RTE programme is going to be one of the largest public service exercises in the world. It is no doubt a noble venture. At another level, it will be interesting as to know how the RTE will impact on the most vulnerable sections of the society ie those who live in abject poverty. As rightly pointed out,children who have either dropped out of schools or have never been enrolled in any educational institution will get an apportunity to do so free of cost. However , there could be children who will be compelled to continue to working to earn their living. In such a big govenment programme, experience will tell us that countless challenges will be faced as the new law comes into force. One of the most serious concerns is the way the money pouring into the programme will be managed. In terms of spending, it will easily eclipse thae National rural Guarantee Programme Act (NREGA).
And as we all know how the latter has faced problems, especially massive corruption in the name of development. Proper checks and balances must be there toto ensure that the funds dont get diverted. The RTE act may have been passed by the central government, ti is the state government and the officials at the local level will implement the act. The finance commission has provided 25000 crores for the implementation of the statute. Further, providing quality educatioon is easier said than done. First there will be a need of a huge amount of teachers and schools. The UP and Bihar govenments have already expressed their inability to implement this act as both these states lack adequate number of teachers and schools. It will be fairly daunting task to recruit the teachers in a transparent and fair manner. Likewise, basic infrastructure like library and classrooms will have to be put in place very quickly. Given the present state of our present school infrastructure, it will be fairly a very daunting task. At the end whatever funds are available, the state government will have to en sure that the funds are used for the stated objective. But one thing is for sure that implementing the RTE act will require a lot of honest effort.
By
Abhishek Jha
