Evaluation of Right to Education (RTE) Act

It means that is the responsibility of the government to ensure that education is available to everyone. For this, it should ensure that there are sufficient schools as well as teachers to cater to the students.

The government is obliged to secure access to education for all children in the age group of 6-14 years. This can be done by focussing on the twin characteristics of free and compulsory education, as outlined in RTE Act.

It deals with the quality of education that is offered to the individuals. Minimum standards of health and safety, as well as qualification of teachers need to be set and enforced by the government. Also, it calls for the need to respect diversity in the student population.

This area is concerned with provision of education to children with special needs or belonging from special backgrounds. The student should be given opportunities to adapt and learn.

Rationale: Since, the responsibility rests on state governments, no concrete efforts of regulations with respect to registration of students are seen. Further, the argument behind increasing the age limit arises from the fact that when the change was proposed in the Constitution in 1995, education till 14 years was considered sufficient for a child. But in today’s world, education till 18 years of age needs to be supported so that an individual can at least complete the basic education. Owing to the current policy, the dropout rate increases dramatically from 2.8% to 13.1% when a child turns 15 years of age.

Rationale: The Kothari Commission which was formed in 1964 and whose recommendations were accommodated in National Policy on Education in 1968, suggested that minimum spend on education should be 6% of the GDP. However, more than 50 years have elapsed since then, and it will not be fair to say that the targeted outlay needs to be enhanced keeping in line with inflation and development aspirations of the country.

Further, the problem is that none of the governments has ever provided for the target outlay, that for 2019 being 4.6%. If government intends to get closer to its commitment to universalize secondary education by 2030, then it definitely needs to increase the outlay significantly and make some major investments. A point to be noted is that investment in online courses like Swayam portal, or in sports education through ‘Khelo India scheme’ etc., will not actualize unless India is able to achieve universalisation of quality education.

Rationale: In the absence of full and timely reimbursement of funds by the state governments, the private schools usually resort to either charging fees from students registered under RTE with the promise of giving back the money once the grant from government is received, or they try to cross-subsidize the cost by increasing unnecessary burden on the well-off class. In either case, it is not justified.

Further, in the absence of provision for reimbursement for allied expenses, the parents of students themselves have to bear the burden of all such things, which in some cases even leads to the child being made to drop out.

Rationale: Importance of providing quality and meaningful education should not be undermined in the name of increased enrolment since development of an individual is ultimately based on the learnings rather than attendance. A national standard for education will help to standardize the curriculum on a national basis and work towards eliminating variations based on state curriculum. A uniform curriculum provides greater flexibility to teachers as well as children in terms of mobility.

Rationale:  The objective of introduction of no detention policy was to stimulate a stress-free environment for the students for their holistic development, but it has actually had the wrong implications. The policy of no-detention can work only when absenteeism can be curbed, teacher-student ratio is in line with the defined figure and the teachers are highly committed and motivated. Unless such things are in place, this policy will lead to creation of individuals incompetent for work and also increase unemployment in future. Hence, introducing detention will help alleviate concerns of unemployment in future. Also, linking teachers’ assessment to students learning will be a good way to ensure commitment from the teachers.

Rationale: Effective systems and accountability measures need to be implemented to ensure that teachers are present in school and perform their duties responsibly,a factalso highlighted by Ms. Seema Bansal, BCG’s Social Practice lead, in one of her speeches.

Further, if teachers are relieved of the burden of election duties, then they can devote up to four times more to teaching, since 81% of their time in 2018 as per the report titled “Involvement of Teachers in Non-Teaching Activities and its Effect on Education”.

Rationale: Unavailability of drinking water and useable toilets for girls are often cited as reasons for student dropouts since these are the basic facilities that should be present at every place, the current ratios being 74% and 66% respectively.

To increase penetration in areas where currently there is no school, small schools should be opened to ensure that no child remains devoid of education. Although the percentage has improved over the years, it is still at 43% and has ample scope to be improved.

Rationale: Lack of teachers affect pupil-teacher ratio mandated by RTE which in turn affects the quality of teaching as one teacher has to teach a large number of students owing to unavailability of others. Infact, surveys have indicated that in some schools as high as 25 percent of the teachers are absent at any time and 50 percent of those present are not engaged in any teaching activity. If teaching can be made lucrative and investment is made in training programs of teachers, then more and qualified teachers will be attracted, on the similar lines as the private sector schools.

Rationale: Since families are unable to break the shackles of pertinent social issues and manage to earn barely for daily sustenance, it becomes really difficult to convince them of the brighter picture which awaits them post education. Unless their social status is improved, they will always prefer having their kids assist them with farm or household chores rather than obtain education.

Rationale: Since children from well-off families as well as economically weaker sections attend school together, eventually the latter start feeling inferiority complex because of the difference in the social status of the two groups.This coupled with discrimination by teachers makes things worse as it demotivates such children to continue their studies further.

Also, separate school for EWS students continue to maintain the gap between the rich and the poor, but will definitely help get rid of the problem of inferiority complex amongst the students.

Rationale: If concrete steps are taken to address child marriage and child labour effectively, then it will be easier to convince parents to send their children to schools. Further elimination of gender-based discrimination will address the problem of low girl-enrolment and help in promoting equality.