The Right to Education Act: An overview
Education system plays an important role in shaping the future of children of a country. A sustainable and effective education system nurtures all the qualities of a child to become a resourceful citizen in future life.
THE CHILDREN are the most precious resource of any country. The future of a country rests on the physical, mental, moral and cultural growth of the children. Education system plays an important role in shaping the future of children of a country. A sustainable and effective education system nurtures all the qualities of a child to become a resourceful citizen in future life. To meet the growing need of a vibrant and dynamic education system, the Government of India has implemented ambitious Right to Education Act (REA) in 1 April, 2010. This Act actually mandates the overhaul of school curricula and traditional examination procedures drastically. With the enactment of the Right to Education Act (REA), all the children between the ages of 6 and 14 are eligible to get opportunity of free and compulsory elementary education. The Act aims at expansion, inclusion and excellence of education system to help the children of the country to blossom into enlightened personalities.
Expansion: To reach the outreached, the state government and the local authorities will establish primary schools within walking distance of one kilometer of the neighbourhood. In case of children for Class VI to VIII, the school should be within a walking distance of three kilometer of the neighbourhood.
As per the new law, the schools need to have certain minimum facilities like adequate teachers, playground and infrastructure. The government will evolve some mechanism to help marginalised schools complying with the provisions of the Act. The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act. As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act.
Inclusion: The plan under inclusion deals with actually implementing the Act in its truest spirit. At present, there are nearly 22 crore children in the relevant age group. However, 4.6 per cent of these children (nearly 92 lakh) are out of school.
The responsibility to identify the drop outs or out of school children above six years of age and bring them within education system rest with the local school management committee and/or the local authority. The local administration will conduct household surveys and mapping of neighbourhood schools. Regular and intensive surveys will help to identify the out of school children while mapping of neighbourhood schools will act as a database.
The Act makes it a right of every child to get education. It also makes it obligatory for the concerned authorities to ensure that every child gets free elementary education. The REA mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections. It is also mandated by the act that no child shall be denied admission for lack of age proof, held back or expelled from the school before completing the elementary education.
Excellence: Along with quantity, the REA puts stress on quality too. Steps have been outlined to ensure that all the children get quality education. Recruitment of teachers, creation of proper infrastructure in schools, curricula development and training of the teachers are some of the preliminary steps initiated by the authorities.
Presently, the number of students in a classroom to the teacher ratio stands at 50:1. However, the Act stipulates that the ratio should be 30:1. To maintain the stipulated ratio, at least 12 lakh more trained teachers need to be recruited. More critically, more than five lakh teachers are currently untrained whereas the Act states that all the teachers must be qualified and trained.
The Central government shall develop and enforce standards for the training of the teachers. To this end, the Central government shall provide technical support and resources to the state government for encouraging and promoting innovations, researches, planning and capacity building.
Special attention has been paid in outlining the school curriculum and evaluation procedure. Maintaining conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution, curricula are to be designed focusing into all round physical and mental development of a child. Efforts to build up knowledge, potentiality and talent of a child through educational activities, explorations and discoveries in a child friendly and child-centric manner have been emphasised. One of the important tasks of the teachers is making child free of fear, trauma and anxiety and helping him expressing his views freely. The REA prohibits private tuition and mandates comprehensive and continuous evaluation of child’s understanding of knowledge and his/her ability the same.
No, it is one of the most significant reforms introduced by the government in recent times. The Act has already come under severe criticism for various reasons. However, the necessity of changing age-old European model of education based on the concept of ‘individual growth’ with a more pragmatic education system based on collective prosperity is considered to be too important for sustainable development of the country.
Expansion: To reach the outreached, the state government and the local authorities will establish primary schools within walking distance of one kilometer of the neighbourhood. In case of children for Class VI to VIII, the school should be within a walking distance of three kilometer of the neighbourhood.
As per the new law, the schools need to have certain minimum facilities like adequate teachers, playground and infrastructure. The government will evolve some mechanism to help marginalised schools complying with the provisions of the Act. The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act. As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act.
Inclusion: The plan under inclusion deals with actually implementing the Act in its truest spirit. At present, there are nearly 22 crore children in the relevant age group. However, 4.6 per cent of these children (nearly 92 lakh) are out of school.
The responsibility to identify the drop outs or out of school children above six years of age and bring them within education system rest with the local school management committee and/or the local authority. The local administration will conduct household surveys and mapping of neighbourhood schools. Regular and intensive surveys will help to identify the out of school children while mapping of neighbourhood schools will act as a database.
The Act makes it a right of every child to get education. It also makes it obligatory for the concerned authorities to ensure that every child gets free elementary education. The REA mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections. It is also mandated by the act that no child shall be denied admission for lack of age proof, held back or expelled from the school before completing the elementary education.
Excellence: Along with quantity, the REA puts stress on quality too. Steps have been outlined to ensure that all the children get quality education. Recruitment of teachers, creation of proper infrastructure in schools, curricula development and training of the teachers are some of the preliminary steps initiated by the authorities.
Presently, the number of students in a classroom to the teacher ratio stands at 50:1. However, the Act stipulates that the ratio should be 30:1. To maintain the stipulated ratio, at least 12 lakh more trained teachers need to be recruited. More critically, more than five lakh teachers are currently untrained whereas the Act states that all the teachers must be qualified and trained.
The Central government shall develop and enforce standards for the training of the teachers. To this end, the Central government shall provide technical support and resources to the state government for encouraging and promoting innovations, researches, planning and capacity building.
Special attention has been paid in outlining the school curriculum and evaluation procedure. Maintaining conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution, curricula are to be designed focusing into all round physical and mental development of a child. Efforts to build up knowledge, potentiality and talent of a child through educational activities, explorations and discoveries in a child friendly and child-centric manner have been emphasised. One of the important tasks of the teachers is making child free of fear, trauma and anxiety and helping him expressing his views freely. The REA prohibits private tuition and mandates comprehensive and continuous evaluation of child’s understanding of knowledge and his/her ability the same.
No, it is one of the most significant reforms introduced by the government in recent times. The Act has already come under severe criticism for various reasons. However, the necessity of changing age-old European model of education based on the concept of ‘individual growth’ with a more pragmatic education system based on collective prosperity is considered to be too important for sustainable development of the country.
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