RTE has become more of schooling & emphasis on education missing

High enrolment, budget cuts and low quality education are main points of status report on the implementation of the legislation

jasleen

Jasleen Kaur | March 25, 2015


#RTE Act   #education   #students   #teachers   #school  

Five years of right to education act and nothing seems have changed. Education still remains a distant dream for children across the country while high drop-outs and low quality of education are major concern of the policy makers. Only positive change that seems apparent is increase in enrolment.

This was highlighted in the report on status of implementation of the right of children to free and compulsory education Act, 2009, released in Delhi at the 5th national stock taking convention organised by the national RTE forum, a collective of education networks and civil society organisations.

The report said the RTE Act seems to have delivered more as a right to schooling than education.

Ambarish Rai, national convenor of RTE forum said that while there have been achievements in implementing some of the provisions of the RTE, the country is still far from meeting its legal responsibility of implementing the right to education for all.

Most of the provisions of the law, including infrastructure, were to be implemented by March 2013 and those related to teacher regularisation and training were to be met by March 31, 2015.

“Over one lakh [government] schools have been closed in the last few years. This is because parents are sending their children to low cost unrecognised private schools. But the government is not focusing on that at all,” he said.

While the government is increasing budget allocation for higher education, it is not paying much attention to the elementary education.

Citing the ASER study, the report, which covered 2,200 schools in 17 states, said the learning outcome for the basic language and mathematics has declined over the years. The number of children who cannot recognise numbers till 9 from class II has increased from 11.3 percent in 2009 to 19.5 percent in 2014.

Krishna Kumar, and educationist and a former director of NCERT said that five years is a small time to evaluate the progress of a law. He said the law was supposed to kill the fear of failure among children but today people are talking to bringing examination back into the education system.

“Education is a slow work. We should be clear with our direction. But it will take a lot of time to achieve the objectives [that are mention under the act]. It is necessary to save RTE and not bring any change in the law at least for next 15-20 years,” he said.

Heavy budget cuts
Under this Act, both central and state governments have to share the financial responsibility and the funds are processed through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Since 2013-14 there has been a continuous and heavy cut in budgetary allocation in SSA. From Rs 26,608.01 crore allocate in 2013-14, this year it has been reduced to Rs 22,000 crore.

On funds it says that despite enough resources for the SSA expenditure has not been proper as except for 2010-11, the budget for other years could not be fully utilised.

The report also said that while most of the budgetary allocation goes to teacher’s salaries and infrastructure, teacher development and ensuring quality education in classrooms are not adequately budgeted for.

Teachers and RTE
The report highlighted that the issue of number of vacant posts has only minimally decreased. While many states have filled the gap of vacant posts by hiring para-teachers (contract teachers), over 5.6 lakh teacher positions are still lying vacant.

The government has made many provisions for ensuring that all teachers receive in-service training to update their skills, the data shows that 80 percent of teachers have been professionally trained and just 22 percent teachers got in-service training.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)
The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) process under RTE was to ensure quality education by regular evaluation of children’s progress and learning. However, adequate attention has not been paid and in 2014, 26 states/UTs had developed their own module for implementing CCE; 5 states/UTs were planning on piloting and upscaling and no initiative has been reported in 6 states/UTs.  

Comments

 

Other News

Maharashtra Aggregator Cabs Policy flawed: IFAT

On May 21, 2025, Maharashtra issued a government resolution (GR) on its Aggregator Cabs Policy 2025 to formalize the largely unregulated sector. The guidelines outline the framework on ride cancellations, surge pricing, driver earnings, among others for app based services like Ola, Uber. Now, the Indian Fe

The Northeast the most diverse region of our diverse nation: PM

Prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rising North East Investors Summit 2025 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi on Friday. Welcoming the dignitaries to the event, the PM expressed pride, warmth, and immense confidence in the future of the North East region. He recalled the recent Ashtalakshmi Mahot

MMRDA proposes formation of Fare Fixation Committee for Metro Lines 2A & 7

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has proposed the constitution of a Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) for Mumbai Metro Lines 2A and 7, currently operated by Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL). ‘Fare Fixation’ is mandated under Section 33

‘Op Sindoor not an act of revenge, but a new form of justice’

Emphasizing that Operation Sindoor was not an act of revenge, but a new form of justice, prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday remarked that it was not just an expression of outrage but a display of India`s unwavering strength and determination. He asserted that the nation has adopted a bold approach, s

An ode to the enduring legacy of India’s temple culture

Dynasties of Devotion: The Secrets of 7 Iconic Hindu Temples By Deepa Mandlik (Translated from the Marathi by Aboli Mandlik) HarperCollins, 232 pages, Rs 399

How to improve India’s crèche system

India stands at a pivotal moment, caught between the promise of a demographic dividend and the crisis of gender inequality. While falling fertility rates, rising female education, and increasing labour force participation signal progress, policymakers continue to neglect one of the most invisible yet vital

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now



Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter