Relevance of Right to Education (RTE) Act: Free and Compulsory education to children

The proverb put forth over two millennia ago, by Aristotle, when he declaimed, “Fate of empires depends upon the education of the youth.”  We all know knowledge is power. Education ensures all round development of the country. Education is a critical factor in improving the quality of life of people, in eradicating poverty and accelerating economic growth. Education has a well-defined role in creating conditions of change. The provision of relevant and quality education is, therefore, a major objective of all national governments. Education is the most powerful tool for the progress of the country and social change. In order to strengthen the position of education in a more organized manner, the government of India took an essential initiative through the enactment of the 86th Constitution Amendment Act. This Act aimed to organize free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 years.

            Now, India has the world’s largest number of youngsters, when compared to China. In the year 2011, the total number of children in the age-group 0-6 years was reported as 158.79  million in India, which is down by 3.1% when compared to the year 2001.

            Seven years after an amendment was made in the constitution (2002), the dream of Free and Compulsory education for all children became a reality in August 2009, when the Parliament passed the Act. With the RTE coming into force, India has joined the league of over 130 countries legally providing free and compulsory education to the children. This Act know as Article 21-A made  education a fundamental Right for children aged 6-14 years. This Act enables free and compulsory education to socially backward and weaker section children. The private schools need to reserve 25% seats for weaker section children under this act. Initially funds sharing ratio agreed upon by Centre and the Sate was 68:32. Private schools will be reimbursed through this fund. State child rights commissions will monitor implementation of the RTE Act in their respective state.

Under this Act, School need not collect any kind of fee/charges or expenses and has to give text books and uniform free of cost. There were signs of resistance from private schools to this clause of the RTE Act recommending the implementation of 25 per cent reservation.

            The Act says that schools should be within a radius of 1-3 km from where the child lives. All government-aided schools have to reserve 25% of their seats for students from economically weak sections (EWS). Private schools that are not aided  by governments also have to reserve 25% of their seats in Class 1 for EWS students and the government will compensate the funds to  them. All government schools have school management committees, 75% of the members comprising the parents or guardians of the children. Fifty per cent of these have to be women

Issues relating to implementation of Right to free and compulsory education Act:

            Some private school managements have gone to court challenging this clause. When one such case was heard in the Supreme Court in February 2011, the Chief Justice of India said that private educational institutions could not complain against the law mandating them to allot 25 per cent of the seats to the economically weaker sections, as it was a policy decision aimed at investment for the country's prosperity. Parents have been voicing their concern about their children “mixing” with “other children”, saying that they do not want “any bad influence on their children.

            Child from Class 1 to 8 will not be failed irrespective of how poorly he or she fared in the exams because Right To Education (RTE) Act has recommended to pass all students up to middle class. Though various state governments believe that this will increase the literacy rate and benefit unprivileged students, raise the enthusiasm of students for learning rather than simply excelling in exams but many educationists and parents feel that it would further lower the standard of education in government schools.

            Despite the enactment of The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which guarantees free and compulsory education, several schools are charging capitation fees for education in pre-primary level. They are also interviewing parents and/or children. There were complaints from parents saying that several schools  interviewed them and asked about their family income, vehicles they owned,  pan card details and even the size of their flats. One of the schools even asked parents to get a character clearance certificate from the local police station. Several schools have even demanded donations at the time of admission for the pre-primary admission, and although parents have approached officials, the latter failed to take any action in this regard.

            The government should ensure that all government run schools are well equipped to take in students, so that they are only left with the sole choice of going to private schools. School management committees should be empowered with the necessary financial and other logistics by the State to discharge their duties effectively. For effective implementation of the RTE Act, States should give some sort of judicial power to the education department. There is a conflict between the child labor law and the Right to Education Act, although both deal with related issues and promote the overall development of children. It is important to bring them into action to avoid confusion. School management committees should shoulder the responsibility of spreading awareness about the Act at the community level and Panchayats, so that people are encouraged to send their children to schools of their choice.