Right to Education Act :

Dr. Rajiv Kumar

Challenges & Remedies

 Introduction:
The Right to Education Act, which came
into force on 1st April, 2010 after 62 years of
independence, has made free and compulsory education
a fundamental right of every child in the 6 to 14 age
group. Now India has joined the group of those countries
who provide for a constitutional guarantee to free and
compulsory education. The enforcement of this Right has
made it a joint responsibility of Central and State
Governments to provide free and compulsory education
to all children by all means. The present paper begins
with a historical perspective, outlines salient features of
the Act, throws light on the challenges ahead and
suggests ways to overcome them.
Historical Perspective:

At the time of Independence, India inherited an educational system

which was not only quantitatively small but was also characterized by striking
gender and regional disparities. Only one child out of three had been enrolled
in primary school. Thus challenge was to provide elementary education to all its
children within a stipulated period of time. Accordingly, universal education for
all children in the 6-14 age group became a constitutional provision by Article
45 of the Constitution. Special care of the economic and educational interests
of the under privileged sections of the population also became a constitutional
obligation. The Constitutional provisions remain unfulfilled. Government's
commitment to ensure elementary education for all children aged 6-14 years
was lseen in its program named 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan'.
Free and compulsory elementary education was made a
fundamental right under Article 21A of the Constitution in
December 2002 by the 86th Amendment. In bringing this into
action, the 'Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Bill' was drafted in 2005. This was revised and became an Act in
August 2009, but was enforced on 1st April 2010.
The Right to Education Act will benefit about one crore
out-of- school children and a large number of drop-out children. As
per an estimate, out of 22 crore children in the 6-14 years age
group in the country, 4.6 percent children have no enrolment in any
school.
 The Salient Features of the Act:

The Right to Education Act is a detailed and

comprehensive piece of legislation which includes provisions related to schools,
teachers, curriculum, evaluation, access and specific division of duties and
responsibilities of all concerned. Main features of the Act are as under:
1. Every child from 6 to 14 years of age shall have the right to free and
compulsory education in a neighborhood school till completion of
elementary education.
2. Private schools shall provide 25 percent reservation for weaker
sections and economically disadvantaged groups in the admission.
3. All schools except government schools are required to meet all
specified norms and standards within three years to avoid cancellation of
their recognition.
4. The Act calls for a fixed pupil-teacher ratio, i.e., 30:1.
5. The Act mandates improvement in quality of education.
6. Financial burden will be shared between Central and State Governments.
 Challenges Ahead :

1. State Governments' Apathy:

Lack of Promptness / Commitment
Poor economic conditions of the States
2. Availability of Infrastructure Facilities:
Establishment of Primary Schools within one kilometer
and upper Primary Schools within three kilometer distance.
Well equipped classrooms, library, laboratory, play ground,
drinking water and toilet facilities.
3. Availability of Teachers and Required Pupil-Teacher Ratio:
• Five lacs new teachers are to be recruited and 5 lacs new
classrooms are to be constructed to meet the required 30 : 1 pupil
teacher ratio.
• There are seven lacs teachers in the recognized 13 lacs primary
schools. Out of these, three lacs teachers are either untrained or
under-training.
• In many states large number of teachers are para-teachers and
many of them are untrained.
• As per a recent report by NUEPA, Bihar tops amongst the states
having poor pupil-teacher ratio and Uttar Pradesh comes at second
place.
• In about 35 percent primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, pupil teacher
ratio is 60:1. Fifty one percent primary schools in Uttar Pradesh are
having three or less number of teachers. Out of these, 38 percent
are para-teachers.
• In the present circumstances, to maintain pupil-teacher ratio as per
the Act, appears a distant dream.
 4. Quality of Education:
Quality of education depends upon the quality of teachers. Teachers'
selection and training procedure and their conditions of work need a
substantial improvement.
Teachers' accountability to the pupils, their parents, the community and to
their own profession needs to be determined.
5. Twenty Five Percent Reservation of Seats in Private Schools:

• What will be the identification, selection and verification of economically

weaker and disadvantaged children ?

• Would they be selected from the neighborhood or from the entire

village/town/city?

• How the whole process will be monitored by the government?

Recommendations / Suggestions:

In the light of the challenges discussed earlier, following are some

suggestions which may be helpful to meet the challenges:

1. The state governments are required to show promptness for the

implementation of the RTE Act. The states who have not yet
released any notification regarding the Act must do it without any
further delay. The Central Government should impose a time limit to
release funds to the states. If any state government still shows
apathy to release notification, then no funds should be released by
the Centre to that state for the establishment of new schools. State
governments should show full commitment for the implementation
of the Act.
2. Primary schools with all minimum required infrastructure
facilities should be established in the neglected areas on
priority basis. Central government should release budget of
its share to the states at the earliest. Facilities in the existing
government schools should be expanded. To avoid the
closure of unrecognized private schools for not fulfilling the
prescribed recognition standards within three years, these
schools must be helped to improve their facilities by resource
support and providing linkages with financial institutions. To
meet budgetary constraints, stress must be given on cost
effectiveness and accountability at every level.
3. To meet the increasing demand of qualified and trained full time
teachers, the teachers in required number must be recruited at the
earliest. Pupil-teacher ratio must be maintained as per requirement. As
more and more children move into the primary school age group, it
becomes needful to build more and more schools and recruit more
teachers for sustained improvement in the quality of education.

4. Primary schools need to be made aware of the provisions made for

25 percent reservation of seats for the economically and socially
weaker and disadvantaged children and the role of school managing
committees in this regard. The identification, selection and verification
procedure of such children should be well defined and well informed. It
should also be notified that how the whole process will be monitored.
5. There is need to streamline educational administration. The pace of
implementation of the Act can become faster if bottlenecks in
administration are removed. Altogether, it is essential to adopt an
integrated approach and establish linkages between education and other
related areas such as child care, nutrition and health. Each state should
formulate a 'State Programme of Action' and each district and school
should formulate a Programme of Action of its own by taking into account
the State Programme of Action.
6. Teachers' performance is the most crucial input in the field of
education. Well qualified and highly motivated teachers are the key to
effective implementation of the curriculum. They give impetus to the
teaching-learning process. Top priority, therefore, should be fixed for the
improvement in the quality and content of teacher education program.
7. While the Central and State Governments have their full share of
responsibilities, it is community participation and involvement of NGOs
which will make marked difference in meeting the challenge of
implementing Right to Education Act.

8. To achieve the goals of Free and Compulsory Elementary Education,

it is of upmost importance to develop curricula that is responsive to
changing needs and facilitates the incorporation and integration of new
content areas related to science, technology, population and the
environment.
 Conclusion:

In order to meet the challenges and surmount the hurdles

that stand in the way of implementing Right to Education Act, it is
needful to concentrate all efforts with full dedication and commitment.
Not only the central and state governments but the nation as a whole
should take responsibility in this regard. Community participation and
support can make marked difference in achieving this goal. There
exists a need for greater coordination amongst different agencies and
functionaries involved in this task. To overcome population pressures
and budgetary constraints, cost effectiveness and accountability must
be ascertained at every level. Efforts should be focused on qualitative
improvement of the whole program.
 References
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE
Act, 2009).

• Education and National Development, Report of the Education Commission

(1964-66), NCERT, New Delhi, 1971.

• Challenges of Education–a policy perspective, Ministry of Education, Govt.

of India, New Delhi, August 1985.

• National Policy on Education – 1986, Ministry of Human Resource

Development, Govt. of India, Dept. of Education, New Delhi, May, 1986.

• Towards an Enlightened and Humane Society, Report of the Committee for

Review of National Policy on Education 1986, Final Report, 26th Dec. 1990.

• National Policy on Education–1986 (With Modifications undertaken in 1992),

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education, New
Delhi, 1992.
National Policy on Education 1986, Programme of Action, 1992,
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of
Education, Govt. of India, 1993.
Education for All – The Indian Scene, Department of Education,
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, Dec.
1993.
Sixth All India Educational Survey, Selected Statistics, NCERT,
New Delhi, 1998.
Seventh All India School Education Survey, Provisional Statistics,
N.C.E.R.T., New Delhi, Sep. 30, 2002.
National Curriculum Framework, 2005, N.C.E.R.T., New Delhi.
National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, N.C.T.E.,
New Delhi, 2009–10.
 THANKS TO

Dept. of Teacher Education

S.V. College, Aligarh (U.P.)