What are some of the challenges in the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE India) Act 2009?
Three years since the RTE came to life in India, effective implementation still seems to be a challenge. I want to understand what are some of the issues that are being viewed as potential roadblocks in implementation.
The Right to Education Act (RTE), enacted in 2009, has ushered in hope for school education in the country. Some features of the Act :
The Right to Education Act (RTE), enacted in 2009, has ushered in hope for school education in the country. Some features of the Act :
- Every child in the age group of 6-14 years is entitled to 8 years of free and compulsory education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his/her neighborhood.
- 25% reservation for children from economically weaker sections into private unaided schools as well as specified schools such as Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools
- All recognized schools must includes a set of basic facilities, minimum instructional hours and an adequate number of teachers, as specified in the Act
- No child can be subject to physical punishment or mental harassment, be held back in a class, or be expelled from school till completion of elementary education.
- Most schools are required to constitute a School Management Committee (SMC), composed mainly of parents. Its main functions are to monitor the working of the school, monitor the utilisation of school grants and prepare the school development plan.
- The main provisions of this act can be found here
9 Answers
Note: I am not particularly well-informed on this topic, so feel free to point out factual mistakes in my answer.
There are a number of problems with the indian education systems and RTE seems to address the symptoms rather than the causes. It sets a nice goal, but fails to add the machinery required to get the state there.
I agree with Pratik Mandrekar that expecting private schools to obey RTE in spirit without providing adequate resources for them is quite ridiculous. Where does the additional 25% of the resources suddenly come from? Government grant money is notoriously hard to obtain, passing through several layers of corruption. Taking a efficiently-run school, and introducing this 25% funding issue, seems an abomination.
The RTE also ignores other aspects at play here: that the home culture, parents and peers play a vital role in the education of the child. Simply adding a child to a prestigious private school does not ensure that child can learn well in that environment. RTE does not allow kids to be failed. What happens when the kids aren't able to cope up?
RTE also seems to be completely against merit-based evaluation: both the students who are admitted, and the teachers who are recruited do not need any training whatsoever. I feel this will lead to considerable lowering of quality.
My personal opinion is that RTE is a gimmick to get the attention of people and play for votes. Almost everyone on the ground recognizes the steps needed instead:
1. Increase the quality of teachers in state-run schools (and private schools). Higher salary, and rigorous recruiting standards should be the norm.
2. Make it easy to open legal, private schools. The market will take care of producing good schools once it becomes easy to do so.
There are a number of problems with the indian education systems and RTE seems to address the symptoms rather than the causes. It sets a nice goal, but fails to add the machinery required to get the state there.
I agree with Pratik Mandrekar that expecting private schools to obey RTE in spirit without providing adequate resources for them is quite ridiculous. Where does the additional 25% of the resources suddenly come from? Government grant money is notoriously hard to obtain, passing through several layers of corruption. Taking a efficiently-run school, and introducing this 25% funding issue, seems an abomination.
The RTE also ignores other aspects at play here: that the home culture, parents and peers play a vital role in the education of the child. Simply adding a child to a prestigious private school does not ensure that child can learn well in that environment. RTE does not allow kids to be failed. What happens when the kids aren't able to cope up?
RTE also seems to be completely against merit-based evaluation: both the students who are admitted, and the teachers who are recruited do not need any training whatsoever. I feel this will lead to considerable lowering of quality.
My personal opinion is that RTE is a gimmick to get the attention of people and play for votes. Almost everyone on the ground recognizes the steps needed instead:
1. Increase the quality of teachers in state-run schools (and private schools). Higher salary, and rigorous recruiting standards should be the norm.
2. Make it easy to open legal, private schools. The market will take care of producing good schools once it becomes easy to do so.
1) The problem with private schools and middle class parents
Apart from grappling with infrastructural and logistical hurdles, they are trying to get private schools to toe the line and failing. The Act empowers the state to act against truant schools but that option is suspect, given the political clout of many schools. There seems to be a survival problem with RTE.
While many issues have been highlighted, one hasn’t got its fair share of media attention. Private schools are keen to junk the Act because it puts the burden of paying the fees for the 25% poor students. Now, no school is gallant enough to take the blow on its chin. The schools will simply transfer the financial burden of this lot to the 75% fee-paying students.
All those sending their children to private schools are not necessarily rolling in wealth. Barring a Bombay Scottish here or a Dhirubhai Ambani there, most of them are middle-class parents struggling to give their child a decent education. These people are being told to pay for their child’s classmates too. Out of every four school-going children, three pairs of parents will pay for the fourth.
This doesn't mean a one-third burden of the child, as the state will chip in with some money but still, the amount is considerable for a middle-class family. The state will only pay the cost it incurs on a child in a public school.
So, if the annual fee for a child in a primary school is Rs1 lakh/year and the state pays Rs10,000 for the economically weaker child, the staggering difference will have to be borne by other parents. Though it is not explicitly spelt out, it stands to reason that the schools will not pay out of their pocket.
2) Children of migrant laborers
A large portion of the beneficiaries of the RTE would be out-of-school children of the urban poor who are mostly children of migrants working at construction sites or doing the odd jobs. While I don't even need to speak about the perceived problems parents see in having their children studying with them and the fact that they need extra effort to make up for lost school time and educational/parental background, the point that they are migrants and will move sooner or later to another location just makes this ineffective.
Plantations Labour Act, 1951 make it mandatory for the employers to provide educational facilities and creches to workers on the plantation and Section 9 (k) of the RTE Act makes local authorities responsible for educating the migrant children. If enforced this could solve the mobility problem but as with many other laws in the country, how does the state enforce this with an in-apt bureaucracy and lack of field expertise.
Adding a few policy flaws highlighted on http://jaideepprabhu.org/
Apart from grappling with infrastructural and logistical hurdles, they are trying to get private schools to toe the line and failing. The Act empowers the state to act against truant schools but that option is suspect, given the political clout of many schools. There seems to be a survival problem with RTE.
While many issues have been highlighted, one hasn’t got its fair share of media attention. Private schools are keen to junk the Act because it puts the burden of paying the fees for the 25% poor students. Now, no school is gallant enough to take the blow on its chin. The schools will simply transfer the financial burden of this lot to the 75% fee-paying students.
All those sending their children to private schools are not necessarily rolling in wealth. Barring a Bombay Scottish here or a Dhirubhai Ambani there, most of them are middle-class parents struggling to give their child a decent education. These people are being told to pay for their child’s classmates too. Out of every four school-going children, three pairs of parents will pay for the fourth.
This doesn't mean a one-third burden of the child, as the state will chip in with some money but still, the amount is considerable for a middle-class family. The state will only pay the cost it incurs on a child in a public school.
So, if the annual fee for a child in a primary school is Rs1 lakh/year and the state pays Rs10,000 for the economically weaker child, the staggering difference will have to be borne by other parents. Though it is not explicitly spelt out, it stands to reason that the schools will not pay out of their pocket.
2) Children of migrant laborers
A large portion of the beneficiaries of the RTE would be out-of-school children of the urban poor who are mostly children of migrants working at construction sites or doing the odd jobs. While I don't even need to speak about the perceived problems parents see in having their children studying with them and the fact that they need extra effort to make up for lost school time and educational/parental background, the point that they are migrants and will move sooner or later to another location just makes this ineffective.
Plantations Labour Act, 1951 make it mandatory for the employers to provide educational facilities and creches to workers on the plantation and Section 9 (k) of the RTE Act makes local authorities responsible for educating the migrant children. If enforced this could solve the mobility problem but as with many other laws in the country, how does the state enforce this with an in-apt bureaucracy and lack of field expertise.
Adding a few policy flaws highlighted on http://jaideepprabhu.org/
- II.4 – A child above six who has not been admitted to school yet should be found placement according to age, not merit
- II.3(1) – A child is defined as one between the ages of 6 and 14, yet every other piece of legislation defines age of majority/emancipation as 18. Surely, this is not inconsistency on the part of the government? Furthermore, in such a competitive age, education until the age of 14 (Std. VIII/IX) is simply inadequate and this early end to the programme makes it wholly ineffective
- IV.13(2)(b) – A prohibition is placed on any evaluation of a child before admission to a school. Had this not been the case, a genuine case might have been mounted that economically disadvantaged children with aptitude would be served by the RTE. However, as it stands, this condition rejects the notion of meritorious admission.
- IV.23(2) – A teacher is allowed to teach without credentials for up to five years, in which time the required credentials must be acquired. This stipulation spreads the idea of non-merit from children to teachers. Standards have become mere suggestions.
- III.7(6) does suggest the development of standards for teachers and a national curriculum for students, but this only suggests that either this has not been done in the past 60+ years after independence (!!) or that it has been hopelessly ineffective. In which case, how is restating it going to help?
I don't know Indian education specifically, but this looks a lot like political posturing.
The right to education doesn't equal a plan to implement it, just like Race to the Top rewards good districts that already have funding, good facilities, a good tax base from which to draw revenue, supportive parents, etc. while failing to create real proposals to help the struggling districts that need the most help.
I also fear that privatized education will do to education what privatized medicine did to healthcare costs. Sure, there's economic incentive for the small limited supply of talent to enter education, but their price will be higher and their scalability will still be limited by the time in a day. And I don't think online videos alone will suffice without human teachers as more than a supplementary tool except in cases where the alternative is nothing.
The second bullet point gives me hope though. There needs to be more specifics on HOW to educate every child, not just vague pie-in-the-sky posturing.
The right to education doesn't equal a plan to implement it, just like Race to the Top rewards good districts that already have funding, good facilities, a good tax base from which to draw revenue, supportive parents, etc. while failing to create real proposals to help the struggling districts that need the most help.
I also fear that privatized education will do to education what privatized medicine did to healthcare costs. Sure, there's economic incentive for the small limited supply of talent to enter education, but their price will be higher and their scalability will still be limited by the time in a day. And I don't think online videos alone will suffice without human teachers as more than a supplementary tool except in cases where the alternative is nothing.
The second bullet point gives me hope though. There needs to be more specifics on HOW to educate every child, not just vague pie-in-the-sky posturing.
I will focus majorly on the effects of RTE on two stakeholders - schools, and teachers.
1. Ensuring Learning Outcomes and Competencies:
Every child in elementary school acquires a certificate of completion. The Act fails to guarantee that a child is competent enough from the education process. There are no standards for monitoring and measuring learning outcomes. This becomes a case of guaranteeing graduation but not education.
2. Quality of Teachers and Teacher Education:
The Act lays down minimum criteria for teacher qualifications. However, it is hard to expect quality improvement unless the foundations/principles, content and methodologies of pre- and in-service training of teachers are relooked at and changed.
3. Recognition Process for State Schools:
Unlike for private schools, the process of attaining recognition for state schools is not prescribed.
4. Early Childhood Education
The Act doesn't lay down mandates for an ECE. The kids who'd benefit from this act need ECE as they aren't exposed to a conducive learning environment till the age of six. If they go to private schools at the age of six, there would be a humongous learning gap between this kid and others who come from privileged backgrounds or have gone through ECE.
4. Teacher Shortages
According to the Ministry of HRD in order to meet the requirements of the RTE Act, 5.08 lakh additional teachers are required to be recruited. Hiring of new teachers and construction of new schools is mandated under the Act, but with an increase of only INR 2,000 crores from the last year, this seems unlikely.
Credits to the RTE document, CCS papers, and Azim Premji Foundation's report on it.
1. Ensuring Learning Outcomes and Competencies:
Every child in elementary school acquires a certificate of completion. The Act fails to guarantee that a child is competent enough from the education process. There are no standards for monitoring and measuring learning outcomes. This becomes a case of guaranteeing graduation but not education.
2. Quality of Teachers and Teacher Education:
The Act lays down minimum criteria for teacher qualifications. However, it is hard to expect quality improvement unless the foundations/principles, content and methodologies of pre- and in-service training of teachers are relooked at and changed.
3. Recognition Process for State Schools:
Unlike for private schools, the process of attaining recognition for state schools is not prescribed.
4. Early Childhood Education
The Act doesn't lay down mandates for an ECE. The kids who'd benefit from this act need ECE as they aren't exposed to a conducive learning environment till the age of six. If they go to private schools at the age of six, there would be a humongous learning gap between this kid and others who come from privileged backgrounds or have gone through ECE.
4. Teacher Shortages
According to the Ministry of HRD in order to meet the requirements of the RTE Act, 5.08 lakh additional teachers are required to be recruited. Hiring of new teachers and construction of new schools is mandated under the Act, but with an increase of only INR 2,000 crores from the last year, this seems unlikely.
Credits to the RTE document, CCS papers, and Azim Premji Foundation's report on it.
Right to Education bill is one the draconian bills to be passed in the history of Independent India.
People often forget that when a so called "right" is given to them, it basically means government will put in extraordinary resources to delivery of that right. This cost is recovered in the form of reduced freedom of people in that area and of course additional tax.
RTE is a government ploy to interfere with the private education institutes. This law makes it difficult for any private organization other than minority religion run institutes to start and run a school. Even existing schools are threatened.
This law arbitrarily decides what a school should have and not have. For example asking a school in Dharavi to have 20 sq feet area per student and a full functional playground is absurd.
Thousands of schools have been shut down because of this law and more are in the pipeline.
Officials in Punjab said they closed 1,170 schools, Haryana shut 713, while Tamil Nadu closed “a little more than 400″ and Andhra Pradesh “not more than 400″…. Baladevan Rangaraju, director of think tank India Institute, who has been monitoring media reports, has counted 2,692 schools shut and 17,871 at risk. He said states where schools were threatened with closure included Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi.
“(Haryana Education Minister) Ms Bhukkal said a further 1,379 schools would be closed in Haryana after the end of the school year in March…Andhra Pradesh Minister for Primary Education Dr Sake Sailajanath said the state had closed schools with 10 students or less, and a further 800 would be shut this year….(Tamil Nadu Education official) Ms Kulkarni said a further 300 schools would be shut in the state this year….Delhi State Public Schools Management Association president RC Jain said roughly 300 schools still had to shut and 750 face closure.
“Commenting on this mad rush of the schools (to seek minority status), president of unaided private schools of Rajasthan, Damodar Prasad Goyal said, “The institutions have been forced to go for minority status in a situation resulting from the recent judgment of Supreme Court. Many of these institutions will definitely take the advantage of minority status to get out of the ambit of RTE.”
People often forget that when a so called "right" is given to them, it basically means government will put in extraordinary resources to delivery of that right. This cost is recovered in the form of reduced freedom of people in that area and of course additional tax.
RTE is a government ploy to interfere with the private education institutes. This law makes it difficult for any private organization other than minority religion run institutes to start and run a school. Even existing schools are threatened.
This law arbitrarily decides what a school should have and not have. For example asking a school in Dharavi to have 20 sq feet area per student and a full functional playground is absurd.
Thousands of schools have been shut down because of this law and more are in the pipeline.
Officials in Punjab said they closed 1,170 schools, Haryana shut 713, while Tamil Nadu closed “a little more than 400″ and Andhra Pradesh “not more than 400″…. Baladevan Rangaraju, director of think tank India Institute, who has been monitoring media reports, has counted 2,692 schools shut and 17,871 at risk. He said states where schools were threatened with closure included Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi.
“(Haryana Education Minister) Ms Bhukkal said a further 1,379 schools would be closed in Haryana after the end of the school year in March…Andhra Pradesh Minister for Primary Education Dr Sake Sailajanath said the state had closed schools with 10 students or less, and a further 800 would be shut this year….(Tamil Nadu Education official) Ms Kulkarni said a further 300 schools would be shut in the state this year….Delhi State Public Schools Management Association president RC Jain said roughly 300 schools still had to shut and 750 face closure.
“Commenting on this mad rush of the schools (to seek minority status), president of unaided private schools of Rajasthan, Damodar Prasad Goyal said, “The institutions have been forced to go for minority status in a situation resulting from the recent judgment of Supreme Court. Many of these institutions will definitely take the advantage of minority status to get out of the ambit of RTE.”
