A review of the Right to Education Act underlines the massive success of this landmark legislation which managed to increase enrollment in rural areas
Dr Manasvi M. Kamat
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in India will complete 10 years of its existence in this very month of August 2019. Under this historic act every child has been guaranteed the right to full-time elementary education of equitable quality in a formal neighbourhood school.
RTE 2009 entails the modalities of the importance of compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 to 14 years. The aim is to provide any child an opportunity for entry into an age-appropriate class, ensure a balanced teacher-pupil ratio and look after the rational deployment of teachers. RTE within its ambit ensures a curriculum that is developed with the values provided by our Constitution and more importantly; prohibits physical punishments, mental harassment, capitation fees, private tutoring by teachers and running of schools without proper recognition. In this context one of the most crucial provisions in the RTE is about the 25 percent reservation in Class-1 of unaided private schools for children belonging to Economically Weaker Section groups.
A review of RTE in last 10 years underlines the massive success of this landmark legislation. RTE has successfully managed to increase enrollment in the upper primary level (Class 6-8) and the national rural enrollment has also increased with only few percent of children in the 6-14 years of age, out of school.
The RTE also has very significant broader implications. Recently the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Faridkot directed one school to stop the illegal practice of grouping students on the basis of their academic performance and capability. The concerned school had grouped the students of a class as ‘high, average and low’ on the basis of marks secured by them in the previous class. The Commission held that ‘children’s rights’ include survival, development, protection and participation; and warned that if the school willfully neglects any student, it will cause mental suffering to him and in violation of the RTE Act.
A recent ruling that came this month (August) is from India’s apex child rights body, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). It asked the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations, country’s largest private education board to immediately revoke its present syllabi for classes I through VIII and switch over to the curriculum prescribed by either NCERT or state education councils. The act of schools prescribing text books other than those prescribed by NCERT/SCERT and coercing parents to purchase books by private publishers is now considered to be in violation of Sec 29 of the RTE Act. The implication being that ISCE schools will now have to follow either the NCERT or the SCERT syllabus and positively impact interest of over 10 lakh students in the country.
Inspite of all good that RTE did, it has not been far from criticism. The NITI Aayog in 2015 pointed out a few impediments in the basic framework of this act. First it mentioned that its applicability is too restrictive (6-14 years) and not reflective of the United Nation’s Charter that guarantees education to children up to 18 years. Aayog spoke against the 25 percent reservations stating there has been a wide gap between cost of educating children admitted under the EWS and the corresponding fee reimbursement by the government, allowing the issue of deficit portion to emerge.
Another grey area identified is that most State governments fail to undertake any specific educational initiative that incur huge expenditure, relying only on Central assistance that is usually delayed. Lastly, NITI Aayog believed that RTE Act fell short to provide quality education to the children and that though the government has relative success in inviting children to schools, the ‘quality’ aspect of education has remained untouched.
One of the major flaws above was rectified earlier this year through an amendment in to the RTE notified in March 2019. The amendment provided for a regular exam in Class 5 and 6 at the end of every academic year. A provision for additional instructions and opportunity for re-examination within a period of two months was also made. Incidentally only six states in India; Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana including Goa were against the amendment arguing significantly higher learning outcomes amongst students as compared to the national average.
Alongside of the amendment, the Draft NEP seems to have taken a note of the Aayog’s critique and has envisioned an extension of the ambit of the RTE for children from 3-18 years. The Draft New Education Policy (DNEP) has outlined a special focus on capacity development of teachers, importance of pedagogy and calls for relaxation of infrastructure norms. One of the most controversial issues in the DNEP however is about the proposal to abolish the policy of the EWS reservations.
The proposal for scrapping the reservation clause that helps address the growing socio-economic inequality in the society is not digestible in the Indian context. It is a fact that the EWS clause has created an opportunity for bridging the gap of social and economic divide among the children and almost 60 percent of the children impacted from this scheme belong to minority and dalit communities, with a potential to impact 20 million children in the next 10 years. Similarly the absence of basic minimum infrastructural norms would lead to varying learning environments and would negatively impact children. Thirdly, while the DNEP places more responsibility for monitoring and implementation of the RTE with the NCPCR, there is no clarity on what role formal NCPCR would play in the new structure.
There is no doubt that the RTE in India has achieved success in overall enrolment rates but faces criticism owing to administrative and structural lapses. There is a need to shift the focus from enrollment to retention rates. Also a massive digitisation of the database will avoid discrepancies, administrative anomalies and will lead to effective implementation of the identified lacunae. More importantly, the methodology and frequency of per-child cost calculation must be revisited for the proper implementation for the EWS provision. Certainly an added emphasis on the quality deterioration in government schools will go a long way in brightening our future through the RTE.
