Center must foot entire RTE bill: Mayawati to PM

Source: Express News Service :Sun, Apr 4 05:16 AM

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has requested the Centre to bear the total cost to be incurred on the implementation of the Right To Education Act that came into effect from April 1.

According to her, it would not be possible for the state government to arrange about Rs 8,000 crore for implementing the Act in view of its present financial position. As per the state's estimates, it would require total amount of about Rs 18,000 crore for proper implementation of the Act.

A release said Mayawati has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard on Saturday. Although Mayawati favours the Act, she has accused the Centre of ignoring the practical aspects before its implementation. She claimed the Centre was not serious about the proper implementation of the Act. Mayawati said if the Centre really wants to implement this Act for the benefit of the people it should bear the entire financial burden too. She felt it is not appropriate for the Centre to issue guidelines in connection with the Act and fix responsibility for its implementation on the states.

She reminded the Prime Minister that she had already written to the Centre requesting allocation of funds for the cause. She hoped that the Centre would seriously consider this and take a positive decision.

MAYA's RTE fears

Rs 3,800 croreCost of building 4,596 new primary schools, 2,349 new upper primary schools and other infrastructure

Rs 10,000 croreSalary bill for the 3.25 lakh teachers in the new schools, 67,000 new teachers in other schools and 44,000 part-time teachers

Post-RTE, fate of lakhs of kids in limbo

Source:Rema Nagarajan , TNN, Apr 4, 2010, 02.49am IST

  
Even as the Right to Education came into effect on Thursday, the countdown began for lakhs of unrecognised schools across the country against whom action can be taken under the new law unless they get themselves regularized within the next three years. The task of enforcing this regularization will be humungous if studies indicating the proliferation of unrecognized schools are to be believed.

In 2005, in a survey in seven districts in Punjab, Prof Arun Mehta of National University of Educational Planning and Administration found that out of 3,000-plus private schools, 86% were unrecognized with over 3.5 lakh children enrolled in them. Another similar report of 2000 based on a survey in four districts of Haryana states that out of 2,000-plus private schools, 41% (over 850) were unrecognized.

As far back as 1996, the Public Report on Basic Education in India (PROBE) survey in five states — UP, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — which conducted a complete census of all schools in 188 sample villages found that 63% of the existing private schools were unrecognized. It is estimated that even Andhra Pradesh has as many as 10,000 unrecognized schools. In Delhi, the government seems clueless about the number of unrecognized schools in the capital with the figures quoted ranging from over 1,500 to nearly 10,000 — catering to about six lakh children.

Prof Yash Aggarwal of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in his 2000 report based on the Haryana survey had said that the number of unrecognized schools was doubling every five years and that if the trend continued, the number of unrecognized schools could be roughly 1.5 to 2 times the number of government-run primary schools. With no official survey including unrecognized schools, there is no saying if Aggarwal's prediction has already come true. Prof Mehta observed in his 2005 report that children who were not enrolled in formal recognized schools were all being treated as out-of-school, which may not always be true.

"When the government does not even know where or how many such unrecognised schools exist, how will it ensure regularization of these schools? Awareness about the law is low even in Delhi government and we need to question the government on how they intend to implement the law," says Ashok Aggarwal of Social Jurists, the organization that filed a case in the high court on the quality of education in unrecognized schools.

There is no immediate panic and nothing is going to change overnight because the HRD ministry has given time to the unrecognized schools to get recognition. But the emphasis seems to be on physical infrastructure or input to get recognition rather than output. "Establishing physical infrastructure is easily done. But you need to measure the outcome. You need to see if physical infrastructure translates into learning among children," says Shailendra Sharma of Pratham, an organization which works on providing quality education and which has been conducting annual surveys on learning levels of students.

Interestingly, every survey on unrecognized schools shows that learning achievements in these schools are as good if not better than recognized government schools. These surveys have also shown that they fare better on several counts like pupil-teacher ratio, students to classroom ratio, number of classrooms, physical infrastructure like toilets and computers, and better qualified teachers, majority of them with little or no professional training.

The HRD ministry has given such schools five years to get their teachers professionally trained. Considering the sheer number of unrecognized schools in the country and the lakhs of children enrolled in them, the government can no longer afford to ignore these schools when formulating a policy to universalize access to education under the new law.

RTE Act: Ploy to channelise mega funds to slimy pockets

 

 Source : CJ: Natteri Adigal :merinews:Mon, Apr 05, 2010 12:57:18 IST

Crores of Indians are too preoccupied in meeting very basic necessities to even know of the 'rights' bestowed on them on paper

What is RTE for over three million kids still live off the streets; 150 million children work as bonded labourers?






THE RIGHT to Education Act has come into force since April 1, 2010. The law is intended to ensure free and compulsory schooling to children in the 6—14 year age bracket. Any child in that age group can walk to his/her neighbourhood school and assert the right to be admitted. Significantly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched it on April Fools’ Day!

With the new RTE Act operational, India has joined the over 130 countries which have legal guarantees to provide free and compulsory education to children. Patriotic Indians – particularly from islands of prosperity in the vast sea of misery – gloat at the achievement of what they think is the world’s emerging superpower. When and if the targets are reached, the ‘superpower’ will join some 20 nations, including Afghanistan, China and Switzerland, providing free education for eight years. But, it is a big if. Given the record of ‘democratic’ governance in India, it is anyone’s guess whether the Act is going to be yet another farce.

Education was among the six fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Ironically, a large chunk of Indians are not even aware of the ‘rights’ bestowed on paper. They are too preoccupied in meeting very basic necessities. After 60 years, over three million Indian kids still live off the streets; 150 million children continue to work as bonded labourers; and the country ranks Number Two with regard to the number of children underfed and malnourished. In fact, there is no right of life and livelihood, no right of conversion to religious faith of one’s choice, right to a couple for planning the size and composition of their family using modern techniques, etc, etc under the constitution.

Of course there are laws guaranteeing against discrimination. But, they have invariably been enacted to facilitate minions at the helm to abuse and harass hapless public. Do such a constitutional provisions have any role to play in the quality of life enjoyed by the general public? Remember, more than 50 countries of the world do not give any guarantee to provide free and compulsory education to children. While a majority of Sub-Saharan African countries, whose poor people eke out as wretched an existence as India’s bottom one-third of the population, figure in the list, the list also includes countries like the US, South Africa, Malaysia. It is an open secret that tens of thousands of Indians are prepared to pay hefty bribe to ministers, MPs, judges and official minions for fleeing to these countries by hook or by crook.

The hypocritical laws only boost the glorious levels of dishonesty and corruption prevailing in the Indian system. Take for example, the anti-dowry, women’s rights and child labour laws. They come in handy to unscrupulous elements to extort money from hapless people, including women, who cannot run from pillar to post. While making no difference to real victims, only the cops and judges who provide their services to them get a cut. RTE appears to be just another tool designed only to benefit a limited section consisting of the powers-that-be and their cronies.

It is quite easy for the crowd of MPs, who include some of the most unscrupulous manipulators of the country, to wield a magic wand. But, ensuring free compulsory education to children with an omnibus law is a cruel joke. Doing so without proper infrastructure and without addressing more important social issues cannot put India in league with countries such as Germany, Belgium, Italy and Norway that have ensured it.

The Prime Minister grandly announced his commitment to see “financial constraints do not hamper the implementation of the Right to Education Act.” Now, Manmohan Singh is supposed to be world class economist. He cannot be unaware that the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration estimated that financial commitment in the range of Rs 3212-4362 billion if the plan is implemented in a timeframe of six years without escalations.

The human resource development ministry under Kapil Sibal ordered its babus to somehow juggle the figures to bring the budget to Rs 1710 billion to benefit close to 10 million children. Factoring in the inflation over the four years that it took for the exercise, this figure is less than one third of NIEPA estimates. Weirdly, allocations by the finance commission is still less – Rs 1250 billion over five years.

Educationist Vimala Ramachandran has brought another aspect to the fore. She asks, “It’s not just about hiring 12 lakh more teachers; how are you going to get teachers to go and teach in these government schools, particularly in North India, West Bengal and Orissa, where they are not functioning?” The right is not just about a physical space called school, but the learning experience, she reminds.

Sibal, however, gloats that the RTE provides the opportunity to “do away with the myth that government can’t provide quality education”. It is no secret that even the sub-middle class segment desiring quality education prefers to send their kids to schools outside the government sector. The mushrooming of private schools is proof of that. Obviously, Sibal is not very sincere about his ‘vision’. Another no-brainer in the Act is the earmarking of 25 per cent of seats in private schools for children from the economically weaker sections.

Sibal’s colleagues in the government are obviously aware that the RTE Act is a farce and a heist. It will only aid squandering of mega funds only to fail in meeting the goal that anyway is doomed from the beginning. Even the government of Delhi, perhaps the wealthiest State in India thanks to the proximity with power centres, has not issued any directive.

The top education babu, Rakesh Mohan, justifies the disdain, saying, “Everyone knows it will be effective from April 1 and so they (the unaided private schools) should have prepared accordingly. What is the need for a separate directive?" The schools contend, “We are not certain if the government will provide the funds for the 25 per cent quota, or if we will have to bear the cost. The matter of hiking fees is still in the hands of the government.”

The whole thing boils down to this: Parents, already reeling under crushing inflation eroding their incomes, will be asked to shell out more for the kid’s education to support RTE.

Finally, even for partial achievement of the grand plan, the first task is to improve the quality of education in government-run schools, reputed to be torture chambers. Without bringing about quality into the government-run schools, RTE Act announced on April Fool’s day will be a non-starter. An amendment to RPA (Representation of Peoples Act) is needed first.

To start with, it must be mandatory for every candidate in elections to Parliament/ State Assemblies to first take off their and their kins’ kids from high end schools and put them in government schools. This could bring about some sort of quality into the government-run schools. Netas, including Sonia, Sibal and Singh, should have no objection to this if they are 1 per cent sincere about RTE. Otherwise, this Act will be another tool to siphon off mammoth sums of public funds into the pockets of Netas and their cronies.

India joins list of 135 countries in making education a right

 Source: The Hindu,2 April,2010 Newdelhi, PTI

With the Right to Education Act coming into force, India has joined the league of over 130 countries which have legal guarantees to provide free and compulsory education to children.

According to the UNESCO’s ‘Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010’, about 135 countries have constitutional provisions for free and non-discriminatory education for all.

However, the report says that despite the legal guarantee of free education, primary school fees continue to be charged in some countries.

It also cited a 2005 World Bank survey, which stated only 13 countries impart primary education totally free of cost. In majority of countries, some direct costs have been reported though no tuition fees are charged.

“In reality, free primary schooling still remains the exception rather than the rule,” says the report.

Chile tops the list of countries in providing free education for a period of 15 years to a child. It gives free and compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 21 years.

The Latin American country, where elementary education was among the worst two decades ago, had implemented a special education programme in 1990 which recorded a significant improvement among primary and upper primary students.

There are seven countries such as Germany, Belgium, Italy and Norway that have provisions of free compulsory education to children covering their entire schooling period.

Countries like Britain and New Zealand have made education compulsory and free for children for a period of 11 years.

Spain, France, Norway and Canada are among the 19 nations where education is free of cost for a duration of 10 years, ranging from the age of five to 15 or six to 16 years.

There are 34 countries, including Japan, Finland, Russia and Sweden where a child gets nine years of compulsory education, according to the report.

In India, the Right to Education law, providing free and compulsory schooling to children in the 6—14 year age bracket, came into force yesterday.

With the new education act now operational, India has joined some 20 other countries including Afghanistan, China and Switzerland which have laws guaranteeing free and compulsory education for eight years of elementary education.

India’s neighbours such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan do not have any law providing free education, where as Bangladesh and Myanmar have such provisions for a four-year-period while Nepal has five years of compulsory schooling.

According to the report, there are seven countries, including Romania and Brazil whose laws define seven years of compulsory education for a child, while five countries, including the Philippines and Georgia give children legal right to education for a period of six years.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq and eight other countries have the provision of five years of free education for children.

However, there are over 50 countries, including the US, South Africa, Malaysia and a majority of Sub-Saharan African countries which do not have any constitutional provision to provide free and compulsory education to children.

The UNESCO report, however, does not have data about certain countries on whether they have any constitutional provision of providing free education.

The report also states that some countries have achieved extraordinary progress in their education system and the number of children dropping out from schools has declined by 33 million worldwide since 1999.

NCPCR sets up Special Div, to launch helpline to monitor RTE Act

Source: UNI:April 1,2010


New Delhi, Apr 1 : The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has created a Special Division to fulfill the ''huge and important task'' of monitoring the implementation of the historic Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, which came into force today.

NCPCR, which has been mandated to monitor the implementation of the Act, will also set up a special toll free helpline to register complaints in this regard, an official release said here.

Welcoming the formal notification of the Act, NCPCR is looking forward to playing an active role in ensuring its successful implementation.

It has also invited all civil society groups, students, teachers, administrators, artists, writers, government personnel, legislators, members of the judiciary and all other stakeholders to join hands and work together to build a movement to ensure that every child of this country is in school and enabled to get at least eight years of quality education.

NCPCR has termed it as a historic day for the people of India as from this day the right to education will be accorded the same legal status as the right to life as provided by Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. Every child in the age group of six to 14 years will be provided eight years of elementary education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his/her neighbourhood.

Any cost that prevents a child from accessing school will be borne by the state, which shall have the responsibility of enrolling the child as well as ensuring attendance and completion of eight years of schooling. No child shall be denied admission for want of documents; no child shall be turned away if the admission cycle in the school is over and no child shall be asked to take an admission test.

Children with disabilities will also be educated in the mainstream schools.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said implementing the act was important for the country to nurture children and young people and secure India's future as a strong and prosperous country.

Better study, or else ...

Source:C P SURENDRAN,TOI.Apr 3, 2010, 10.59am IST




The Right to Education Act, which is supposed to benefit close to one crore children is a bit of a paradox laced with the usual, well-intentioned, celebratory Indian cruelty. Celebratory because the accompanying self congratulatory applause drowns the gastronomic rumblings of the millions that the Act is meant to benefit.

Right to education was among the six fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The new Act makes education enforceable in law. It is a moot point what the letter of the law can do in a situation that encourages its total breakdown in spirit.

There are laws, for example, the 1986 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, which prohibits children under 14 years from being employed in “hazardous occupations”. That hasn’t prevented boys and girls from working in quarries or explosive industries like firecrackers.

If charitable Acts and humanitarian laws could in regular bouts of Mosaic fervour command away injustice, over three million Indian kids won’t be still living off the streets; or, 150 million children would not continue to work as bonded labourers. The law is law. It is not dal-chawal. In the short run at least, gut and gruel come before maths and science.

Long ago, in Kerala, when this writer was, — improbable as it might seem — a child, his object of grudging admiration was a hardy community school in a village in Palghat where his relatively poorer-off cousins were enrolled. Their father was a Zamorin scion who had given away his considerable wealth to the communist movement and fallen on lean days. The school fortunately had a mid-day meal scheme, mostly rice mixed in powder-milk. And the cousins didn’t miss a day in school. Their teachers made sense not necessarily because they were A-league gurus, but because the beast in the belly had ceased to growl.

The regime of the beast spreads far and wide. The World Bank estimates that India ranks second in the world with regard to the number of children underfed and malnourished. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world, and is nearly double that of sub-Saharan Africa. Most children who do not go to school or become drop outs — a little over one-third of all children who enrol in grade one reach grade eight — do so, because the act of acquiring wisdom in a class room could end up killing them. They are infinitely better off working, begging or stealing. They see in education extermination by starvation. And, instinctively, they have preferred life to learning.

If reports are anything to go by, the free and compulsory Act talks of new schools, more teachers and infrastructure, and quota system in private schools. The finance commission has allocated Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementing the Act. The school management committee or the local authority will be empowered to identify out-of-school children and admit them in classes. From now on, it’s either school or jail. Sort of.

If all this will eventually translate into sadistic teachers, overzealous village sarpanches or even a socially-minded cop or two scouring the countryside with cane or worse in hand for truants hiding away in the bushes, do not be surprised. ‘Free and compulsory’ has that ominous ring to it, the unmistakable gleanings of a proto-police raj.

That the Act gives no thought to food, which ought to be an integral part of any sustainable act of learning, is a failing. Nor does it mention monetary reward to parents for sending their wards to school. Why would parents want to take children off work and cut their already meagre family incomes?

For all the easy and obvious goodness that the Education Act envisages, in the absence of social and economic cushions, school could come to many as a torture camp — which in very many cases it already is thanks to primitive teaching methods and callous staff.

Surely, if education is compulsory for children no matter what their debilitating background is, why not make, say, health compulsory? In future, every child will be healthy, or else. Applause.

Private schools may hike fees with RTE in place

Source:indiaedunews:April 01, 2010


New Delhi: The Right to Education as a Fundamental Right has although been officially announced by the Prime Minister today in the morning but the after-effects, which are already up in arms occupy the private schools profusely.

The private schools in the capital acknowledge the possibility of a fee hike since they require funds to support the 25% reservation of students from weaker and disadvantaged sections, which is now mandatory for every school.

The mandates of the Act specify that the State government is responsible for the tuition fees of these students. But the recompense will be equal to what the government spends per child in its own schools or fees charged by the private school, whichever is less.

This policy does not satisfy the needs of the private players who feel that the amount which they actually spend on each child is not sufficient for these students which is why the funds would be generated in the form of hiked fees.

Bharti Sharma, principal, Amity International School, Saket, said that, "Having state-of-art facilities and extra teachers ensuring children a good environment to study does not come cheap."

According to the rules framed by the government, 400 schools, which have received land from the government at subsidized rates are obligated to reserve 15% seats for students belonging to the EWS category.

Principal of Tagore International School, Madhulika Sen said that their school is an example of such an obligation.

"There is only a 10% hike for us. Funds for 15% do not come regularly so I am apprehensive about the 25%. Come this academic session, we are bound to charge Rs.2800 from each student and the government will not even recompense with even half of this amount. We are thus left with no other option but to hike the fee," she said.

The private schools in March challenged the Act in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it violated the rights of private educational institutions under Article (19)(1)(g).

Parents are unhappy about the recent hike while the Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely assured that there is going to be no hike in school fees.

Implement RTE, promote failed students, schools told

Source:indiaedunews:April 02, 2010



New Delhi: As the Right To Education (RTE) Act became a fundamental right of every child from yesterday, all the schools received a circular from the Directorate of Education (DoE), Delhi government, stating them to promote all those students who failed in classes VI, VII and VIII, officials said.

They further added that the circular was required to inform the schools of the provision since most of them in Delhi declared their results before the RTE was implemented.

V.P. Singh, state project director of the Delhi government said that, "The RTE makes it necessary for every child to be educated at least till his middle class."

In the circular, the principals have also been asked to prepare a road map for three years along with the list of more teachers required for its implementation.

According to the provision of the Act, the teacher-student ratio in a school should be not more than 1:30. There is thus an acute shortage of teachers to fulfill the criteria at present.

According to the sources, the Delhi government schools have approximately 800 TGT, 1109 PGT and 175 principal's posts lying vacant.

"It has been intimated to the principals that a student should be promoted if he fails on margins. If at all he needs to work hard in some subject, he should be given another chance and should be placed in the category of compartment," said the sources.

The city government has submitted a proposal to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry as far as the question of developing the infrastructure goes. The decision to sanction the funds is likely to be taken in July, the sources said.

From today, every child has a right to education

  Source:PTI Apr 01 2010 , New Delhi

 

 

Nearly eight years after 

the Constitution was amended 

to make education a fundamental right,

 

the government today implemented a

historic law to provide free and compulsory

education to all children in age group of 6-14 years.

The 86th Constitutional amendment making education a fundamental right was passed by Parliament in 2002. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, a law to enable the implementation of the fundamental right, was passed by Parliament last year. Both the Constitutional amendment and the new law came into force from today.

The new law makes it obligatory on part of the state governments and local bodies to ensure that every child gets education in a school in the neighbourhood.

Its implementation will directly benefit close to one crore children who do not go to schools at present. These children, who have either dropped out from schools or have never been to any educational institution, will be enrolled in schools.

The Right To Education is being touted by the UPA government as another major achievement after Right To Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

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, a ministry official said.

The school management committee or the local authority will identify the drop-outs or out of school children above six years of age and admit them in classes appropriate to their age after giving special training.

The Act makes it a right of every child to get education. The Act makes it obligatory for the appropriate governments to ensure that every child gets free elementary education.

The Act mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections.

Certain schools have already challenged the law in the Supreme Court as being "unconstitutional" and violating fundamental rights of unaided private educational institutions. However, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said that legal process would not affect the implementation of law.

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. Sibal said that the government has arranged the required funds for implementing the law.

The Act says no school can deny admission to a student and all schools need to have trained teachers. In case of schools not having trained teachers, they will have to comply with the provision within three years.

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 comply with the provisions of the Act.

The government has already prepared model rules which have been circulated to the states for preparing their own rules for implementation of the Act. The Centre has also prepared separate rules for the Union Territories which will be notified by the Law Ministry next week.

As per the Model rules, the local bodies and the state governments will undertake household surveys and neighbourhood school mapping to ensure that all children are sent to school.

The rules say that the state governments or local authorities will determine the neighbourhood schools by undertaking school mapping. Such agencies shall ensure that no child is subjected to caste, class, religious or gender abuse in the school.

The local authority will conduct a household survey and maintain a record of all children in its jurisdiction. The record will contain detailed information about the child and the parents and will specify whether the child belongs to the weaker section or disadvantaged group or having any disability.

The state government or local authorities will identify children with disabilities and children from disadvantaged groups every year.

Unaided and private schools shall ensure that children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups shall not be segregated from the other children in the classrooms nor shall their classes be held at places and timings different from the classes held for the other children.

The new law will ensure that quality education is provided to children of all community, including minorities and backward classes.

However, the reservation for weaker section will not be implemented from this year as the admission season is almost over. It will be implemented from 2011-12.

The state government and local authorities will establish primary schools within walking distance of one km of the neighbourhood. In case of children for Class VI to VIII, the school should be within a walking distance of three km of the neighbourhood.

The government has prepared a short film on the new law which would be aired on TV channels to create awareness.

Child rights panel to monitor RTE Act

Source:indiaedunews:April 01, 2010 
     

New Delhi: The apex child rights panel on Thursday welcomed the implementation of the much-awaited Right to Education (RTE) Act and said that it looks forward to taking on the responsibility of monitoring its successful  implementation.

The Act will provide free and compulsory education to children in the age group of 6-14 and specially focus on bringing 8.1 million children of this age group back to the classroom.

A special division of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) will monitor the implementation of the Act.

"NCPCR welcomes the formal notification of this act and looks forward to playing an active role in ensuring its successful implementation. A special division within NCPCR  will undertake this huge and important task in the coming months and years," an official statement said.

"A special toll-free helpline to register complaints will be set up by NCPCR for this purpose," it added.

Calling on civil society and others to play an active role in the implementation of the act, the statement further said, "We invite all civil society groups, students, teachers, administrators, artists, writers, government personnel, legislators, members of the judiciary and all other stakeholders to join hands and work together to build a movement to ensure that every child of this country is in school and is able to get at least eight years of quality education."

PM enters RTE frame, to address nation on Apr 1

Source:Akshaya Mukul, TNN, Mar 31, 2010, 02.02am IST




NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, PM Manmohan Singh will address the nation on the historic Right to Education Act on April 1, the day the law comes into effect.

It is for the first time in independent India that any PM will address the nation on a specific law.

Though it it is also for the first time that a new fundamental right -- Right to Education -- will come into play, the PM's address takes on significance because it comes against the backdrop of a strong perception that he was more focussed on foreign policy issues and rate of growth.

The PM's preoccupation with big ticket foreign policy issues -- civil nuclear energy cooperation with the US and quest for improvement of ties with neighbours -- has seen Congress chief Sonia Gandhi getting the exclusive political property rights over major social sector initiatives -- from the NREGA to food security bill to women's quota bill.

The confrontation with the opponents with the women's quota bill starkly brought out the disconnect between priorities with Sonia Gandhi staking her political capital to see the Bill through in the Rajya Sabha.

Importantly, the Prime Minister's decision to speak to a country-wide audience on RTE comes a day after the setting up of the National Advisory Council under Sonia Gandhi.

Right to education as a fundamental right was brought about through the 86th Amendment in 2002 by inserting Article 21A in the Constitution.

It is believed that the HRD minister Kapil Sibal had met the PM and requested him to address the nation on the historic law.

Meanwhile, HRD ministry has put in place all the necessary legal requirements needed under the RTE Act. The model rules have been sent to the state governments while central rules for Union Territories without assemblies -- Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar Island, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Lakshwadeep, and Daman & Diu -- will get finalised on Wednesday after being vetted by the law ministry. Many state governments have also begun the process of adapting/adopting model rules as state rules.

The HRD ministry has also notified NCERT as the academic authority for the curriculum and the National Council for Teacher Education as the academic authority that will lay down the minimum qualification for teachers. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights will soon set up a monitoring cell for the RTE Act. Each state has also been asked to set up a State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR). Till this is done the states have been asked to set up Right to Education Protection Authority. Karnataka, Sikkim, Delhi and Maharashtra have already set up their SCPCR.

HRD ministry has also zeroed on a host of issues as the next steps for better implementation of RTE. Among them is sharing of funds between the Centre and states. The ministry wants revision in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan's funding pattern of 55:45 between the Centre and states so that it can be aligned with RTE. HRD wants the Centre's share for RTE to go up.

HRD has also decided to ensure that age appropriate admissions are given by schools as well as mapping of neighbourhood schools is done. Reservation of 25% to underprivileged children in the neighbourhood might not be possible this year as school admission in many states had nearly got over by the time notification of RTE and Article 21A was made.

Money no constraint for RTE: PM

Source:TNN, Apr 2, 2010, 04.03am IST





NEW DELHI: A deep personal touch from PM Manmohan Singh and a promise that financial constraint will not hamper its implementation is all that the Right to Education Act needed on the first day. 

HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who has been at the forefront of showcasing the RTE Act, took the backseat on Thursday. He even cancelled his pre-scheduled press conference.

Addressing the nation, the first ever by any PM on a law, Singh gave his own example to convey how education could ensure that no child stops dreaming. "I was born to a family of modest means. In my childhood I had to walk a long distance to go to school. I read under the dim light of a kerosene lamp. I am what I am today because of education," the PM said.

Singh, however, did not miss out on scoring the political point by stating that the first demand for Right to Education during the British rule was made by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a Congressman.

The assertion is seen as necessary, considering that the the 86th constitutional amendment that made right to education a fundamental right was done during the NDA regime in 2002.

The PM's speech made a reference to the Constitution amendment that has also become operational but fell short of thanking BJP's efforts.

"This demonstrates our national commitment to the education of our children and to the future of India. We are a nation of young people. The health, education and creative abilities of our children and young people will determine the well-being and strength of our nation. Education is the key to progress. It empowers the individual. It enables a nation," he said.

The PM's speech tried to reach out to everyone. He said RTE should become a "national endeavour" for state governments, district and village administration, teachers, parents and civil society groups.

United Nations congratulates India for RTE initiative

Source:Indiaedunews:April 02, 2010


United Nations congratulates India for RTE initiative
New Delhi: The echo of implementing the historic Right of Children to
 Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act was heard loud and clear throughout the country.

The Act, giving wings to the aspirations of children aged 6-14 to free and compulsory education was lauded by the United Nations bodies with the UNICEF representative Mr. Hulshof in India saying that, "This initiative will ensure quality education with equity to tens of millions of children in India. It will propel India's potential to even greater heights of productivity and prosperity."

UNESCO New Delhi Director Armoogum Parsuramen said that, "This Act bridges the dream of India to be a step closer to its goal of achieving national educational development, millennium development as well as education for all by improving each child’s accessibility to secondary and higher education."

"It is the mission of UNESCO to spread education to every nook and corner of the country and with this mission in mind, the RTE Act stands as the best accompany to its successful implementation."

Andre Bogui, Acting Director for International Labour Organization Sub-Regional Office for South Asia said that, "The RTE brings forth the opportunity to reach the disadvantaged sections of the society such as child labourers. Although there is no such certified age for employment but the Act specifies the age limit for children to be at school during that period of their life, which means they are not supposed to work."

Save the Children, a NGO, which works for the rights of children in the country, described it as the landmark moment in India’s history.

As India is also one of the signatories to the UN Child Rights Convention (UNCRC), its commitment to the Article 28 of the UNCRC had made it mandatory for the country to implement such a directive.

Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children in a statement said that, "Although the Act has been implemented all over the country, but there are some loopholes which need to be addressed. The critical challenges ahead might even claim the fundamental right to be a hollow one."

He further added that, "The act, for example, excludes children in the age group 3-6 years which are the most crucial years for a child for his mental, emotional and cognitive development. These formative years cannot be excluded to achieve the universal elementary education targets. When we talk of elementary education, how can we not focus on investing on these early years?"

The present teacher-student ratio stands at 1:50 and in some institutions, it is as high as 1:80, which is enormous as compared to the prescribed limit of 1:30 in the Act. If the directives of the Act are to be followed, then there would be a need of at least 12 lakh more teachers within six months of the notification of the Act.

"The scenario is more critical when there are more than five lakh-untrained teachers in the country, while the Act stipulates that the teachers must be qualified and trained," he said.