Appraisal of Right to Education policy
This is an appraisal of the Right To Education Policy, which needs more complex handling. I wonder what is happening to the Right To Education? The bill has been passed we are told, but has the inveterate right that we have been talking about for so long, been passed and enacted? It is like so many things in India, a rigmarole and effete lip service. The SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) was launched with so much fanfare, but they are only talking about midday meals. Is that the prime concern of education? But let's see, prima facie, what is happening.
ARE 6–14 year olds getting the education which is elusive for them, and that which they deserve? Unless each state government, under the supervision of the Central Government implements the RTE nothing tangible will emerge. Allied to this is the sad phenomenon of street children which should be closely linked to this problem of education in our country. There can be no equity without access, and no access without equity. The two terms ‘Equity’ and ‘Access’ seem to figure only in conferences, for us to write erudite discourses and also to fatten our ever growing CV. That school education is the foundation and fount of all education is a truism. But such truism has only become platitudinous and not the palpable reality.
Much has been discussed about Common and Neighbourhood Schools. This precept is wonderfully realistic, but will remain only in the realms of wishful thinking unless Private Institutions are given a disciplinarian reprimand in this regard – that they have to admit poor students free of cost, in which strict guidelines should be enunciated. More and more, the schools should come under government control with monitoring quality and appointment of quality, trained teachers.
So many documents on education have been prepared, why not a one on the implementation of the RTE with guidelines, inextricably linked to Below Poverty Line families, street children, teacher training at the Pre Primary and Primary Levels and Vocational Education. All these are talked about and discussed in meetings, plush rooms and conferences, but have they been holistically connected, what is the vision?
Separate strands about education are being taken up, but they are not viewed with perspectives of oneness. For example guidelines for a Vocational Education Framework have been finalized, but the implementation, the careers chosen are vague. We have to accept the reality that some children are more practically aligned to reality than through cognition, which is rote learning and answering five to six questions in three hours.
And then, some state governments are mooting the idea of not ‘failing’ students. Then why call it an examination, develop a constructive paradigm by which assessment is done on a continual basis with 80% evaluation on this aspect.
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