Free and Compulsory Education: Reality or Dream? (शिक्षा: एक मुक्तिदाता)

 Free and Compulsory Education: Reality or Dream?

Clever Children: Free and Compulsory Education: Reality or Dream? This is the biggest question infront of all of us. Although it’s Law and governed by Article 45 earlier and now article 21 A, yet to be reality. Is the Right to Education a reality for India’s children? India is home to 19% of the world’s children.  What this means is that India has the world’s largest number of youngsters, which is largely beneficial, especially as compared to countries like China, which has an ageing population. Children Constitutes nearly around 42 % of the total population of India and they are future of our nation. The not-so-good news is that India also has one-third of the world’s illiterate population. It is not as though literacy levels have not increased, but rather that the rate of the increase is rapidly slowing. For example, while total literacy growth from 1991 to 2001 was 12.6%, it has declined to 9.21%.

To combat this worrisome trend, the Indian government proposed the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, making education a fundamental right of every child in the age group of 6 to 14. Unsurprisingly, the reality is very different.

Mukund Singh: RTE ACT 2009 me 6 to 14 years ke baccho ko free and compulsory shiksha dene ka pravdhan. Pichle 5 varsho se RTE ne apne kai aayamo ko pura karne ka bharpur prayas kiya hai. Isme khas bat enrollment me badhotari.   RTE act ke lagu hone se primary school me baccho Ka enrollment badha hai aur school Ki sankya me bhi. 98% primary school me badotarri hui hai. MP me primary school 92053 hai (state elementry report 2011-12). 6 to 14 yr ke bachho ko age ke adhar par admit karna, bahut badi kami hai. Yadi bachha 9 varsh ka hai to use age ke adhar or 3rd ya 4rth me admit karna hoga. Teacher use kaise treatment denge?

Sanjay : Umar ke adhar par dakhila dena ye kami nahi chunauti hai. Bade bachhe ko chhoti kaksha me dakhila denge to vo us kaksha me samayojit nahi ho payega.

Sneha: Free and compulsory education is must. Education helps each and every people in every field. Government schools are providing everything including food to attract student. What I really feel is that why not Mr Primeminister implement “sarva shiksha abhiyan” just like “swach Bharat abhiyan”. Why not we are giving pen to every child instead of zadu because “padhega India tabhi to badhega India”. We really need school chale hum because 100% literacy means 100% guarantee to be a develop country.

Ravi Chauhan: 

Archana Kushwaha: We have many challenges for free and compulsory education implementation ie. By this scheme education, a fundamental right is still in a question. By RTE, 25 % seats are for poor children in private school, that’s good but what after getting admitted to the school do these 25% children are not discriminated by teachers and others peer in their class. Therefore, there has to be some fruitful steps to make teachers as well as the students to treat knowledge and experience equal because that is not inherited. There are so many problems or challenges such as, funding, Quality control ie there is scarcity of skills and trained humanpower ie the teachers….

Nowadays politics is more involved in this. For vote sake, no political leader talks about RTE. Even our PM is also busy in digital India …but for that, the children should first get the basic education… RTE says its parent’s responsibility to send their childern to school….but will it ensure that after going to school, they will learn some thing furitful …so the mid day meal or free books and dress will not attract the child but knowing new thing that we have experience but not come across its phenomeno  (watercycle). So the children will be more fasinated to come school or if their is learning by doing on their own like some handicraft work will make a child to join.

Sanjay Kumar Pandagale: Very true. The basic need of any country is necessarily good education. If so, progress will follow automatically.

Priti Maan: Basically learning start from home itself, but when the children are not encouraged by the families to go and learn something good how can any mission will help out. In addition, the families which are at BPL (below poverty line), their main priority is too earn money that too by any means for that they use their children too. Sending their wards to school is out of their list. So how can children fascinate towards learning. Every time targeting government is not good in my opinion because they have launched so many schemes and missions to educate underprivelaged. ‘Sarva shiksha abhiyan’, ‘Akhil Bhartiya Shaksarta Mission’ is the part of such missions. Government can only provide you with the resources, but deciding the future of your wards is wholely and solely the responsibily of parent.

Sanjay Kumar Pandagale: Priti, you are right. However, you youself explained the things. If small amount of money is there to survive then why will parent’s send there children to school? Awareness is also a big factor. It is the responsibility of local government to ensure the participation of every child in the school.

Raju Borkar: If we go through the ‘Right of Children to Free and compulsory education act 2009’, it can bring about great transformation in the country if it is implemented in its essence. For that, it requires strong will of all the stackholders. Like State, institution (both state owned/privately owed), people and most prominently teachers. As the act is implemented long back but yet there are no adequate facilities in the schools to comply it.

So first, we have to ensure these-

1. Teacher pupil ratio- Which is very uneven in schools. Even DM School Bhopal has 35-36 students in each class. Whereas the act says 1:30. If I talk about privately owned top schools of Bhopal, they have even 1:60.
2. Infrastructure- This is the biggest issue to deal with. Though KVs, Navodayas and some well known private schools have good buildings but the condition of public schools is pathetic.
3. Workload- Teachers are engaged in other works, which hampers the teaching.

ANSHULA: In our school, the ratio is 1:50

Ajay Gaude: India is facing a shortage of over five lakh teachers while the deadline for regularisation of teachers under Right to Education Act is only days away. RTE Forum, a network of 10,000 grassroot organisations working in 18 states, highlighted that an additional 6.6 lakhs teachers need teacher training.

“It’s a crucial juncture as the nation stands at the threshold of the RTE Act’s deadline 31st March, 2015. Unfortunately, only 10 percent schools in India presently comply with all the norms and standards of the RTE Act. We are facing a shortage of approximately 5 lakh teachers and an additional 6.6 lakh teachers need teacher-training. These statistics are particularly disappointing considering that March 31, 2015, marks the final deadline for teacher regularization and training. What is concerning is that the state continues to violate provisions of the RTE Act, recruiting contractual and untrained teachers with less pay. The status of teacher-training and teacher- training institutes is equally poor; and there is no clear road-map to improve the situation and quality of education. In such a scenario, it is the extremely marginalized children of the society who continue to remain deprived of their fundamental right to free and compulsory education.”

Private schools have emerged across the country, segregating the society furthermore on the basis of people’s ability to pay.

Kamla Chahali: I think u r wrong …the actual scenerio is not like this. Every school is giving admission and following the norms provided by state as well as govt. Not knowing about rest but for my school I confm this.

Archana Kushwaha: Yes, I have also seen the schools following the 25% seats for poor people. Its not now a problem for children to get admitted to schools but yes to cope up with all the high demands from not only the teachers but also from the peers.

Kiran Prajapati: Absolutly right sir. When I was doing my research work came across many parents who do not even know what this right to education is. And they all belong to poor and underprevileged families.

Baliram Sahu: Free and comoursary education increases enrollment only not quality.

Sanjay Kumar Pandagale: If we feel that private schools are improving quality then RTE act is contributing for that. Apart from many other factors, teacher is most responsible to bring the quality. Automatically quality won’t come.

Ajay Gaude: Ms Kamla, you look at scenario across the country not in your school. You must read the reports published by MHRD and other bodies to understand the reality of RTE implemetation.

Shweta Rai: 

Kiran Prajapati: Wonderful

Raju Borkar: But as it is observed, private schools after giving admission they do justify discremination on the name of 25% student. Many schools have separate section for them and after 14yrs or ninth class; they have to leave d school also.

Sneha Pantavane: Very nice 

Raju Borkar: If anyone would have seen few days back Delhi school admission scam, where many admissions were give in the name of RTE but were taken adequate money.

Satish Gawande: RTE ko sarkar ne ek bahut satik upchar mana hai, jisse primary shiksha ka ek paksha pura hota hai. Is se bahut acche parinam mile hai. School Ki sankya ke sath baccho Ki sankya bhi badi hai. Iske kuch sarthak point….

1. bachho Ki sankya me badotari
2. student teacher ratio me sudhar huwa hai
3. bachho ko admission me paresani nahi
4. free books dress or MDM jis se garib baccho ka school me izafa
5. sabi school me teacher
6. paravesh age ke adhar par
7. PTA ya SMC Ki bhagidari
8. 25% garib bachho private school me admission
9. 8th tak Kisi bacche ko fail nhi kiya jayega
10. quantity ke sath quality education bi hoga
11. school pakka ho, pani, ground, TLM, toilet ki vyavastha ho

Iske kuc dosh dekte h…

1. admission ka adhar age hona
2. evaluation system ka adhar thik nhi
3. baccho me padai ka Dar pura khatam
4. quality education ka nam raha hi nhi
5. 25% garib baccho ko private school me admission se bahut sari asamanta
6. Admission ke liye private school ki aur dhayan

4 gavo me primary school me total 100 student hai. Ab 25% se 25-bachhe nikal gye to ek primary school band ho gya… Aisa hota rhega to government public private partnership me safal ho jayegi or private school aur angreji shiksha ko badawa milega.

Sanjay Kumar : सतीश, आप अपने ही पॉइंट्स को काट रहे हो कई जगहा. जिसे आपने अच्छा लिखा उसे बुरा भी बता रहे हो. प्राइवेट या अंग्रेजी शालाएं गावों में बहुत ही कम है और अगर है भी तो उनकी गुणवत्ता में अधिक अंतर नहीं होता. फिर भी यह चिंता का विषय तो है हि. अत: सरकार को सरकारी शालाओं की ओर अधिक ध्यान देना ही होगा.

I got good information from above discussion. Congratulation and thanks to all the contributors. Whatever may be the present status of RTE act but it is very essential to propagate education in the society. It is the duty of every citizen to take it in right spirit.

(The above topic was suggested by Ms Archana Kushwaha, M Sc (Chem) I year, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai)