Hailed as one of the most important legislations since independence, Right to Education Act 2009 is set to change education landscape in India. However, since being enacted in April 2010, it has not seen many perceptible changes in the education system in India. What problems are they beset with. This article explores this and much more
Good news is that the 2011 census show an increase in literacy rate, but the nation is still to worry as 81 lakh of its future generation are out of school. While releasing the achievements in the first year of the implementation of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said 81 lakh children out of school was a matter of great concern.
Child Rights and You (CRY) has reported that 17282 eligible habitations in India do not have a primary school within one km of the habitation. Within the sphere of infrastructure, 1, 48, 696 government schools in India are without a building, 165742 schools without drinking water, and 4, 55, 561 schools without toilets. 1, 14, 531 primary schools are single-teacher schools.
Translating a Directive Principle of State Policy (Article 45) into a fundamental right (Article 21A) and then to statutory guarantee to right to education (RTE Act 2009) has taken, unfortunately, several decades. Provision of free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 years is mandated under Article 45 of the Constitution. In the endeavor to increase enrolment andachieve Universal Elementary Education (UEE), the state governments have abolished tuition fees in Government schools run by local bodies and private aided institutions. Right to education is not stated expressly as a fundamental right in Part III. The Supreme Court has not followed the rule that says that unless a right is expressly stated as a fundamental right, it cannot be treated as one. Freedom of press is not expressly mentioned in part III, yet it has been read into and inferred from the freedom of speech and expression and from Article 21 more particularly, sprung up a whole lot of human rights jurisprudence.
What have we got ultimately through the Constitutional and Statutory ‘guarantee’ of right to education, in 2009?
Right to education was not included in the guaranteed list of fundamental rights in Part III. The members of Constituent Assembly thought that the governments would take the guidance from these directives and fulfil their obligations towards the people. The country passed through without any progress in providing education as per Article 45 until 1993, when the Supreme Court questioned the executives about it. Justice Jeevan Reddy rightly said it was no more a directive but a right, and got consolidated into fundamental right with the passage of time. It was good to hear that after forty-three years the Supreme Court called it a fundamental right. But who will be executing it? Judiciary has expanded the scope of Article 21 by leaps and bounds to secure the quality of Indian citizens. It includes within its realm, the right to know through education. But again it’s just rhetoric and does not mean anything more than that, if not supported by a strong executive will and legal mechanism.
Feeling uncomfortable with the judicial admonition of executive apathy regarding the right to education, the government started ‘limiting’ that theoretic right. The limitation was clear and visible with the 86th amendment in 2002 where it mandated that state shall provide free and compulsory education to “all” children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the state may, by law, provide. First of all it is not for all children, secondly government shirked its responsibility towards children in the age group of 0-6 or effectively 2-6 years and 14to 18 years, and thirdly, the manner is determined by the law to be made, which means further shrinking of the right. It is strange that the constitutional guarantee of a fundamental right provides within itself enormous power to state to limit that right besides eliminating children of age group from 3-6 and 14-18 years. This is the background of Right to Education enactment in 2009, which was not implemented till 2010. The government chose April 1, 2010 to announce its implementation without any positive change in the situation as to provision of facilities to give education to the poor people.
Implementation of the Act requires systemic changes within the education system. In the past fifteen years we have seen that state education department has been fragmented into SarvaSikhsahAbhiyan (SSA) department and regular mode education department. Unless they are integrated this Act cannot be implemented because the Act requires integrated practice. In the last one year lots of efforts have gone into this integration and also in the harmonization of SSA with RTE. So one year has gone into making these backgroundsystemic changes, and unless these changes took place the implementation could not be made. And the good news is now these changes have started from this March.
We have an education system which is three hundred years old and this act is asking for major paradigm shifts in that attitude to education. I can tell you it is not going to happen willingly. It is going to happen through a process of both transformation and may be through legal measures. The Acts says that every child will have to be evaluated continuously every week, every fortnight, every month, every three months, every six months, and attention will be given according to the need of the child, and no child therefore should be failed or expelled. Our education system is based on the system that the fear of examination and the fear of ‘danda’ together will discipline a child and make the child study. The whole paradigm is based on the fear of examination and fear of being beaten, for indiscipline. This is considered to be a part of educating a child. Now this act says you cannot do this. You cannot fail and expel a child. You have to continuously evaluate a child and give every year not just marks but a detailed list of information about the child. This is a paradigm change which would require lot of time and effort.
The Act says the state would ensure enrolment, attendance and completion of child’s education. Dropping out of any childfrom a school is an illegal act and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that no child drops out. If a child drops out, the government is violating a law and it can be taken to the court. This is the real meaning of the Act.
We have about 78% children of this country out of 20 crores in the age group of 6 to 14 years going to government schools , about 14 % going to government aided schools and about 8 % percent to unaided school. So the government school system is vast. There are 1.3 million government schools. In those, there are very good schools and there are some very bad schools. Therefore, the task is that every government school reaches a certain basic threshold of quality.
We have large number of untrained teachers and we need to have about 1.5 million new teachers under the RTE Act. So in total we have a huge number of untrained teachers and training such a large number is a mammoth task. The question, is can we get them trained in the next five years? The good thing is that the norms of teachers under RTE Act have been notified. That is important. Secondly, a lot of efforts have gone in the last one year in making distance mode of education for teacher’s training. But to me this is a formidable challenge, much more than making available total number of schools for every child.
After one full academic year has passed since April 1, 2010, only six states and seven Union Territories have notified the Act and made rules, that too in the last quarter of the year. Those six states are Sikkim, Orissa, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, AndhraPradesh and Rajasthan. The government of Andhra Pradesh took at least 10 months to notify the rules (on 22.2.2011). State specific rules are critical because they outline commitments of state governments on standards they will ensure and details of how they will implement the RTE Act. One year is not a small time and much could have been achieved. Notification of the rules means a financial commitment and employment of other resources to make the legislation a right.
Only 11 states constituted State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights, while 28 States adopted the policy of eight year elementary education. Andhra Pradesh has notified the same in February, and nine other states notified it thereafter. There was a policy of no detention (failing) in 27 States, 28 states had banned corporal punishment and 26 had done away with board examinations up to the elementary level. Several states had also banned private tuition, screening procedure and capitation fee.
Another meritorious achievement presented by Sibal is that a huge number of children were now enrolled in schools – 13 crore at the primary level and another five crore at the upper primary level. Girl enrolment was 48 per cent. NGOs question the authenticity of these figures saying that there are several lakhs of children out of school working in fields and factories.
India’s primary education scene looks not particularly alarming on paper. The gross enrolment ratio (GER) from Class I to VIII was 94.9 percent and from Class I to XII, 77 percent. But hiding behind the GER is the sheer number of children who do not attend, or those who drop out.
The GER does not take into account the numbers of those who actually attend school, and how many drop out. Government schools lose 25% of their students by Grade V, and almost half (46%) by Grade VIII. 80,43,889 children in the 6-14 age group fall into the ‘never enrolled’ category, and are out of school.
One of the major problems is lack of awareness. India’s apex monitoring body for the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, National Commission for Protection of Rights of Children’s(NCPCR) Chairperson, Dr. Shanta Sinha said, “Awareness about the Act continues to be extremely low, especially at the levels below the state capitals. While people are not aware at all, teachers and head teachers have only rudimentary information. In order tocreate awareness about right to education among children the Centre has decided to display main provisions of the law on the walls of all government school buildings. The NCPCR is planning an awareness campaign and may take up an enumeration drive to find out how many children in the prescribed age group do not go to school. The guarantee of this right is hardly felt by poor villagers as the awareness is bleak and political will is weak. The NCPCR has created a system for people’s participation in the effective implementation of the Act by appointing State representatives who will initiate a dialogue between civil society networks and the governments, and act as the eyes and ears of the child rights panel. It is working with the school management committees as the basic monitoring unit, conducting public hearings and initiating social audits of RTE.”
No. this cannot be considered a correct assessment. The main objective of RTE Act, 2009 is to provide free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school. The RTE roadmap lays down the timeframe for the establishment of neighbourhood schools , provision of school infrastructure and the provision of teachers, as per prescribed PTR, by 31 March, 2013, and the training of untrained teachers by 31 March, 2015. The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) norms have been modified to align them with the requirement of RTE Act 2009. The most crucial of such norms are related to opening of new primary and upper primary schools, sanction of teachers/part-time instructor, and special training for out-of-school children. SSA would support opening of new primary and upper primary schools as per neighbourhood norms prescribed by state governments in their RTE rules and provide special training to out-of-school and drop out children to facilitate age-appropriate admission mandated under Section 4 of the RTE Act. The required funds have been provided by the Centre. An outlay of Rs.2,31,233crore has been approved for implementation of the combined RTE-SSA programme from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
Drop-out rate is showing a steady decrease. Special initiatives are already being implemented under SSA, now aligned with RTE. The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary level in educationally backward blocks is being implemented. 2567 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, which are residential upper primary schools for-girls from SC, ST, OBC and Muslim community, are operational. Special focus districts with predominance of SC, ST, OBC and minority population have been identified for targeted intervention under SSA.
Groundwork for extending the compulsory education to class X has already started by launching of various schemes by the Central government. The scheme Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, started from 2009-10, is envisaged to achieve an enrolment rate of 75% at secondary stage within 5 years. During 2010-11, 2368 new/upgraded schools, strengthening of 12206 schools, in-service training of about 6 lakh teachers have been approved based on the Annual Plan proposals of 25 States. Another scheme of setting up of 600 model schools at Block level, being implemented from 2009-10 is to provide quality education to talented rural children by setting up 6000 model schools (one school per block). In 2009, 327 model schools in 11 states and during 2010-11, 401 model schools in 5 states sanctioned up to 31.12.2010. Central share released/being released to these states. Some schools have already become functional with effects from 2010- 11 in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Another 1098 schools have been approved till 31.12.20l0. Also, a scheme for construction and running of girls hostel for students of secondary and higher secondary schools is being implemented from 2009-10 for setting up girls hostels in 3500 educationally backward blocks. About 400 hostels have already been sanctioned for different states, and the central share released or being released. Girl Students in the age group (14-18) studying in class IX to XII belonging to SC/ST/OBC/minority communities /BPL families are the target group of this scheme. In view of these initiatives, it would be possible to extend the compulsory education to Class X. Adequate funds are being provided by the central government. It is for the implementing agencies, i.e., state governments to handle these initiatives at the ground level in the true spirit. Shortage of teachers can pose a problem but that too can be handled if proper planning and management is there.
Under the RTE Act, the appropriate government is mandated to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group. It also provides for protection and monitoring the child’s right to free and compulsory education and redressal of grievances by the National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights which have the powers of a civil court. Provision has been made under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for supporting the activities of the National/State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights for monitoring the rights of children under the RTE Act. Under SSA, besides the neighbourhood schools, alternate schooling facilities are also provided through Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres including Madarsas. Lastly, Mid-Day Meal Scheme also covers all children from Classes I-VIII in National Child Labour Project Schools. Thus, objectives of RTE Act could be achieved if all the implementing authorities, i.e. State governments/local authorities, NGOs, Protection of Child Rights Commissions work together in co-ordination with the Central government playing the role of nodal authority. Increased public awareness can also play a crucial role in ensuring the successful implementation of RTE Act.
10 States, i.e., Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Orissa, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram have notified the rules. 16 other states have prepared the draft rules but are yet to notify them. It must be kept in mind that flagship programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal Scheme along with a number of major interventions for girl child, SC/ST/OBC/minority children, etc., are being implemented throughout the country by the central government in co-ordination with state governments. Besides, many states have also initiated a number of very effective schemes for extending the outreach of elementary education to the targeted group of children. All these programmes have resulted in significant improvement in the school education sector in the country. Model RTE Rules prepared by the Central government were forwarded to state governments with a request to adopt/adapt them as per the state requirements. Central rules have already been notified on 9.4.2010.
The other big gap is one of access. Many children still can’t go to school simply because there isn’t one to go to. 17282 eligible habitations in India do not have a primary school within one km of the habitation. Within the sphere of infrastructure, 1, 48, 696 government schools in India are without a building, 165742 schools without drinking water, and 4, 55, 561 schools without toilets. 1, 14, 531 primary schools are single-teacher schools.
“The overall shortage of teachers is estimated to be 14 lakh and states like Uttar Pradesh have a huge shortfall of over two lakh vacancies, which have not been filled up due to lack of resources,”
the CRY report said. Eight states have less than 50 percent teachers who are professionally qualified, it added. “Many teachers are not aware about the Act. If we want to get rid of archaic practices like corporal punishment, urgent attention must be given to school based training for teachers,” said Ambrish Rai, spokesperson of RTE Forum.
“Awareness about the Act continues to be extremely low, especially at the levels below the State capitals. While people are not aware at all, teachers and head teachers have only rudimentary information. In order to create awareness about right to education among children the Centre has decided to display main provisions of the law on the walls of all government school buildings. These writings on the wall will list the basic entitlements for children under the RTE Act. The NCPCR is planning an awareness campaign and may take up an enumeration drive to find how many children in the prescribed age group do not go to school”
Even teachers have only “rudimentary information” on the Act, and NCPCR has registered at least 230 RTE violations in the past year. Delhi reported 65 violations of the Act, Madhya Pradesh reported 27, and Haryana 25. The violations range from irregularities in admissions to corporal punishments and poor infrastructure. The Act bans interviews of students as a criterion for admission, and the failing or detention of students till class VIII. Dr.ShanthaSinha said lessdeveloped states such as Orissa are doing well in implementing RTE, but some other states that are considered frontrunners in education still need to improve.
The RTE Act mandates that the State Commissions for Protection of Child rights (SCPCR), constituted by the Department of Women and Child Development, at the state level would be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the RTE Act. In states where they are not constituted, the Department of Education can constitute a Right to Education Protection Authority (REPA) to look into the monitoring function of the implementation of the RTE Act. However, only 9 States have SCPCRs and 2 Statesin absence of SCPCR have constituted REPAs, thus leaving 16 States out of 27 States without an authority to monitor implementation of the RTE Act.
As education is a responsibility of both the union and state governments, implementation of RTE is largely a state function while the Centre shoulders 65% of the financial burden. The Act would need Rs.2.3 trillion for implementation over five years beginning 1 April, 2010, according to the HRD ministry. Furthermore, RTE implementation was delayed due to the debate between the centre and states on who will pay for its implementation and there was further disappointment when the Union budget allocated only Rs 21,000 crore to the HRD ministry, which had demanded Rs 34,000 crore to fund RTE and SSA implementation. Another problem, the report highlighted, is the lack of community involvement which is the key for successful implementation of any policy.
It is interesting to note that a major portion of the allocations to education are earmarked for the Sarva Shiksh aAbhiyan (SSA), which, according to the Government, is the main vehicle to implement the RTE Act. However, CRY’s analysis points to the fact that the government’s allocation to the SSA has increased by only 10.53%, most of which comes from the 2% education cess on central taxes. The allocation in 2011-12 is Rs. 20999.78 crores, over last year’s allocation of Rs. 18999.10 crores at the revised estimate stage. The allocations for SSA from sources other than educationcess have gone down from Rs. 7769.10 crore (Revised Estimate 2010-11) to Rs. 7096.15 crore (Budget Estimate 2011-12). So, insufficient budget is an issue that needs to be addressed. Hence, the one year-on report card is discouraging, but not hopeless. However, what is clear is that this slow movement will not lead to any major shifts in India’s public education.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is hearing a slew of petitions by private, unaided schools across the country challenging the constitutional validity of the RTE Act, and saying it would not be possible for them to implement the law on various grounds. The schools say the RTE law violates their fundamental right to a livelihood. They have objected to provisions such as the requirement for each school to have a playground and the ban on expelling students till class VIII.
The HRD ministry is yet to respond to their contentions in the court.
The Supreme Court asked the Centre to produce data to quantify the weaker section, as conceived in the year-old RTE Act that mandates 25% reservation for children belonging to this class in every private school. A bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia gave this direction. “You have evolved this concept, so you have to show us the data,” the bench told Additional Solicitor General Ms. Indira Jaisingh when she argued that it was for the school to prove how the provisions of RTE would burden the schools financially.
With a condition that every school should accommodate poor students in 25 per cent of its seats and if the demand for seats in a particular private school is morethan 25 per cent, method of selection should be taking lots and nothing else. Entrance test and interviews for admission are illegal. The rules clarified that government will pay the expenditure for all those students at the rate the government spends per child in its school. This will definitely be opposed by the schools. More than money, the private schools are objecting to accommodate poor students apprehending problems of integration with students from higher economic strata. As the litigation is pending before the Apex judiciary about the level of obligation the private schools need to fulfill is yet to be clarified.
At the end, the right to education might narrow down to state financing of BPL students in private schools up to 25% of their strength in each class. However, it is for the government to establish schools at remote places where the private schools may not come up due to viability problems. Will the government allocate enough funds to build new schools? Can it provide schools where there are none? These pertinent questions remain to be answered.
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