Kaur, B.

/ Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

The Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act

Ms. Baljinder Kaur
Lecturer, Chitkara College of Elementary Education for Women, Chitkara University, Punjab Campus, India

Abstract The Right to Children to free and compulsory education Act or Right to education Act was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009. Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into force from April 1, 2010. In his speech, Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India stated that,We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education, an education that enables them to acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to become responsible and active citizens of India. Reason behind RTE is not reaching every child and recommendations are the focus of the present paper. Key Words- RTE, Challenges, Recommendations, Quality

Introduction The Right to Children to free and compulsory education Act or Right to education Act was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009. Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into force from April 1, 2010. This is 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. The law came into effect in the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1 April 2010, the first time in the history of India a law was brought into a force by a speech by the Prime Minister. In his speech, Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India stated that, We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education, an education that enables them to acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to become responsible and active citizens of India. It provides a justiciable legal framework that entitles all children between the ages of 6-14 years to an education of reasonable quality, based on the principles of equity and non-discrimination. The RTE Act is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibilities of ensuring enrollment, attendance and completion on the Government. It is the parents responsibility to send the children to schools. 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 8 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 Vol. 2, No. 4, April 2013 177

Kaur, B. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

asked to take an admission test. Children with disabilities will also be educated in the mainstream schools. Salient features of Right to education Act Free and Compulsory education to all children of India in the 6-14 age group. No child shall be held back, expelled or required to pass a board examination until completion of elementary education. A child who completes elementary education (upto class 8th shall be awarded a certificate). Mandates education of children along their peer age group (age-appropriate); provides for special training to facilitate age appropriate education Calls for a fixed student-teacher ratio. Will apply to all over India except Jammu and Kashmir. Provide for 25% reservation for economically disadvantaged communities in addition to class 1 in all private schools. Mandates improvement in quality of education. Sets qualification and working norms for Teachers in all schools School teacher will need adequate professional degree within 5 years or else will loose job. Mandates curriculum in all schools to be in consonance with Constitutional Values School infrastructure to be improved in 3 years else recognition cancelled. Mandates participation of civil society in the management of schools; makes teachers accountable to parents and the community Financial burden will be shared between state and central government. Protects children from labour, marriage, exploitation, discrimination, abuse, violence and neglect. Separates agency for implementation of Act (Education Department) from agency charged with monitoring the implementation of the Act (NCPCR)

Every other day we see children working at roadside, restaurants, in peoples home, on the roads and in the tea stalls. The Act Right to Education is not applicable to these children because of some reasons that become barriers in the path of the education of these children. These reasons are given as follow: Population and economy The most important factor that effects the implementation of RTE is fast growing population and slower growing economy. Due to increasing population the poor people is not able to fulfill the basic needs of his family. So to increase the economic/financial position, he force to his child for laboring. These types of children are those who have never enrolled in any school. But the question is that: if these children have never been enrolled in school how have they been counted? By which agency?

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Kaur, B. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

Illiteracy of parents To know the importance of education for the upliftment of human life every parents should be literate and their children. Because large amount of population is illiterate and not aware of the value of education for his life therefore many people is missing the opportunity of right to education. Though the bill prohibits any person from preventing the child from going to school it has ignored the reality of the majority of poor children who are employed in agriculture sector and bear the burden. Lack of Awareness Our government has passed the bill quite enthusiastically, but most of the teacher, but most of the teacher, educator. Other social activities and the common man are not aware of the salient features of this act. How they can be fulfill the target given in this bill. Also the poor people are not aware of the right to education. So they can not guide their child in education field. Due to the lack of awareness this act is not useful to these people. So RTE is not reaching to those people who are not aware about it Lack of schools In RTE, all the children are supposed to be admitted in nearby schools. In backward areas, there is no facility for education. So from these areas children can not get education. Large distance between the school and home also create problem for the children. In areas with difficult terrain, risk of landslides, floods, lack of roads and in general, danger for young children in the approach from their homes to the school, the government should locate the school in such a manner as to avoid such danger Lack of trained teachers For disable students, special facilities and special trained teachers are required. Regular teacher are not sufficient for children with disability because of the lack of aware of the concept of disability and education of special children. So the disabled children will be deprived of this opportunity. The elementary education part of our system already suffers from shortage of teachers and a fairly large number of teachers of this segment are untrained. To get trained and qualified teachers within stipulated period is not only going to prove a Herculean task but appears to be almost impossible. A gradual and systematic influx of teachers would have been better approach. Unavailability of the resources In general most of the schools teacher teach the theoretical concept but not teach the children practically. This is because lack of the resources like teaching aid, science lab, libraries, math labs, computer labs, languages labs etc. If child learn or read lot of study materials but he does not know how to apply it in his daily life then whole study become useless. So there is need to use the teaching-learning materials to explain the concept practically. In such a manner student can learn actually.

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ISSN: 2320-009X

Lack of Infrastructure Government faces a huge challenge of ensuring quality of infrastructure and its maintenance. Equally a problem for NGO initiatives Small private schools would also face difficulty Recognition of NGO and Private Schools depend on upgrading the infrastructure to meet the RTE norms. To fulfill the target of RTE Act, a number of school buildings, infrastructure materials, classroom, blackboard, washrooms, laboratories, furniture is required. Lack of Financial Assistance To fulfill the needs of the students, school infrastructure, furniture, a huge amount is required. Our system is severely starved of funds and that it does require huge sums, even much above six percent of the GDP for all aspect of educational development. Quality of Education It is strange irony that while on the one hand the government wants to provide quality education to all children, across all the barriers, on the other hand it recognizes four kinds of schools under the Right to education Act: Government Schools Government-aided Schools Special Schools recognized by the government such as Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodya Vidyalaya and Sanik Schools.There are others at the state level too. Private schools. With such a variety of schools, it is only natural that quality of education varies. Once again it boils down to the rich being able to afford better quality education and the poor having to compromise with something inferior. Barrier for Orphans The Act provides for admission of children without any certification. However several states have continued pre-exiting procedures consisting that children produce income and case certificates, BPL cards and birth certificates. Orphan children are often unable to produce such documents, even though they are willing to do so. As a result schools are not admitting them, as they require the documents as a condition to admission. Therefore if we want to transform the education system then it is necessary that the following steps are taken: All the children including child labour should be motivated to learn. There is a conflict between the child labour law and the RTE Act, although both deal with related issues and promote the overall development of children. It is important to bring them in step, to avoid confusion Children with disabilities should be provided extra facilities in neighborhood schools and specially trained teachers should be recruited in every school to provide the right to education for all. There is need to appoint more and more trained rehabilitation professionals to meet the demand of inclusive education. The teachers need to be oriented to teach in inclusive setting and curriculum needs to meet the special needs children. 180

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Kaur, B. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

Teacher education set up in our country needs to be reformed to tackle the challenges connected with providing free and compulsory. The education to the children in the 6-14 age group. The basic question is not just providing free and compulsory education but building a suitable environment with a support system of skilled and highly motivated teachers. Parent shall be educated about need of education in present era and material should be provided to create awareness among rural masses. Women in the basic of family education, therefore women or mother should be educated through adult education. Technology and teaching learning materials should be provided for different laboratories, libraries and workshops. For equitable education proper infrastructure should be provided to remove economical, social, cultural, linguistics, location and disability related barriers. To provide sufficient financial assistance to educational institutions 10% of development funds should be spent on the school education and health of the children. A performance based evaluation of teachers should be done and efficient and innovative teachers should be rewarded.

The quality of teachers is the backbone of any teaching program. Untrained or unmotivated teachers can mar any program, no matter how ambitious it is. Creating a standard training program to train and generate quality teachers is crucial for the RTE Act to produce meaningful results. 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 programme. Conclusion To conclude I can say that although there still exists gaps between and formulated rules and their execution. But the government and the society should endeavor to fill this gap and make education reachable to all the children.

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