THE SUPREME COURT has sought the response of the Centre, all states and Union territories to a petition filed by the Delhi-based National Coalition for Education (NCE) alleging widespread violation of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in schools countrywide. On April 11, a constitution bench of the court headed by (recently retired) Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justices Ranjan Gogoi and M.Y. Eqbal, issued notices to the Centre, all states and Union territories seeking a reply œafter the summer vacation.
Four years after it became operational, the well-intentioned RTE Act is floundering on the rocks. While the Act promised free and compulsory education to all children in the 6-14 age group, the DISE (District Information on School Education) report 2011-12 says a massive contingent of 34.5 million children are out of school countrywide. Census 2011 enumerated 233.5 million children in the 6-14 age group. Thus, out-of- school children aggregate almost 15 percent. Moreover, there™s a shortage of 1.2 million teachers in the school system and according to the Delhi-based RTE Forum, only 8 percent of India™s 1.30 million schools are compliant with the infrastructure and teacher-pupil ratio norms stipulated by s.19 and Schedule of the RTE Act.
This status quo ante scenario prompted NCE ” a conglomeration of NGOs intent on implementation of provisions of the RTE Act ” to file a PIL in the apex court. In its petition NCE prayed the court to issue directions for construction of more schools, immediate recruitment of 100,000 professionally trained teachers, identification and mapping of all school-age children, upgradation of deficient schools, according permanent status to contract and para-teachers countrywide, constituting school management committees (SMCs), and registration of all government schools.
Cut to Uttar Pradesh, India™s most populous state (200 million). The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), required to be established as per provisions of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, to promote, protect and defend child rights, is yet to be established, while 39.2 percent of children are reported out of school, according to official statistics. The state also reports the highest number of teacher vacancies countrywide (165,000).
œPolitical rivalry on key issues such as teachers™ eligibility has stalled political action on education in the state, says Kumar Ratan, national advocacy coordinator of NCE. This is ironical given that for the past decade and a half, UP has been ruled by political parties headed by former teachers.
General lack of awareness about the provisions of the RTE Act and institutional cunning to circumvent its provisions, have also stymied its implementation in UP. For instance in Lucknow, even the highly reputed Delhi Public School side-steps the obligation mandated by s.12 (1) (c) of the Act to reserve 25 percent capacity in primary schools for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged groups by running separate afternoon classes for them, a clear violation of the spirit of the Act.
But even schools which are RTE-compliant prefer not to become involved with government. œWell before the RTE Act made the 25 percent reservation mandatory, we started admitting such children under our social outreach programme. However, after promulgation of the RTE Rules by the state government, we find there is too much paperwork involved in getting partial reimbursement of fees payable by government for quota children, and prefer not to apply, says Vijay Singh, director of the CBSE-affiliated L™Ecole du Monde, Lucknow.
On the other hand, government officials are wary about cracking down on private schools which are non-compliant with provisions of the Act. œIf we enforce provisions of the RTE Act too strictly, we risk closure of a large number of schools. Since government schools are not an option for most middle class households, where would the children of closed schools go? We can™t risk enraging parents, admits an education officer of the state government.
While responses to the notices issued by the apex court will clarify the stand of state governments on the RTE Act, implementation of this historic legislation in its entirety is clearly a long way off.
Puja Awasthi (Lucknow)