The Challenges and Hurdles Faced in the Implementation of RTE Act in an Era of Neo Liberalism

The Challenges and Hurdles Faced in the Implementation of  RTE Act in an Era of Neo Liberalism


The Story behind the Enactment of the RTE Act

• All the policies and perspectives on  education in Independent India considered that A21 of our constitution read with A 45 meant that among other fundamental rights the right to education of all children in the age group of 0-14 also included as a constitutional obligation.. In this background the Kothari Commission (1964-66)  also spoke  about ‘the common school system founded on neighborhood schools.’ However the central and state govts did nothing to implement this obligation.
• When India  began to move towards the neo liberal economic policies (1991) the concept of Universal Elementary Education is further weakened.
• However In the landmark judgment known as Unnikrishnan case (1996) the SC held that A21 includes Right to Education of all the children in the age group 0-14. This made all those who stood for the Universal Elementary Education to raise their voice towards fulfilling this constitutional obligation.
• Thus led to the 86th Amendment in  2002. Article 21A  and further explanations in A 45 were inserted in our constitution.
• But this amendment unlike other fundamental rights said that a new legislation will be enacted in this regard.
• In 2005 CABE constituted a committee to draft the new law.
• This draft without being subjected to a national debate was made in to an act known as the RTE Act in the year 2009 which came into force from 1 April 2010.

The Problems in the RTE Act

• It is claimed that the act promises compulsory free education to all the Indian children. This is a false claim since  it promises  compulsory free education only to the children in the age group 6-14 in contradiction to the concept of universal Elementary education to all children in the age group 0-14.  One should not forget that today education begins at least from the age  onwards. Education up to the age 14 is not at all sufficient for a person to lead a minimum decent life.
• This follows from the neo liberal approach of the govt which substitutes the concept of the “Early Childhood Care and Education” by measures such as “Integrated Child Development Services” (ICDS) etc. These are not universal approaches but are targeted amelioratory measures suggested and promoted by world economic forums such as IMF and World Bank.
• Thus by targeting children of  6-14 age group, atleast 16 crore children below the age 6 are deprived of the right to nutrition, health and ore primary education.
• Thus before the enactment of RTE act Universal Elementary Education was accepted as  one of the constitutional directive principle   though not as a fundamental right.
• The RTE Act made it a targeted approach to benefit a particular age group.

 25% Reservation in Private Schools  

• The RTE Act stipulates that all the private schools should reserve 25 % of their total admissions to the socially and economically downtrodden sections free of cost. The govt will pay their fees. According to the 7th educational survey about 19 crore children in the age group 6-14 are admitted in schools. Of these only 4 crore children are admitted in private schools. 25% of this amounts to 1 crore, The remaining 15 crore children are to continue their education in the so called sub standard government schools.
• What about the fate of these fortunate 1 cr children after they finish their 8th standard? They have to seek admissions in the govt schools for further studies.
• Thus the concept of common school system founded on neighborhood schools is sent to the backdoors and the present reality of two types of schools for the two classes of students is legalized through the RTE Act.
• The Act has not formed any clear guidelines on how to choose these 25% pupils which may lead to confrontations among the weaker sections of the society.
• The school fees for these 25% students will be paid either directly to the schools by the govt or through the vouchers given to these students. Thus this is a part of the neo liberal approach known as “private public partnership” through which public fund is transferred to the private realm.

End to Exhortation of Donations etc..

• It is claimed that RTE Act will put an end to (i) exhortations of donations by private schools, (ii) interviewing the parents by the private managements to eliminate certain sections of students from giving admission and (iii) private tuitions practiced by the teachers. These are all welcome measures, but the mechanism through which these could be implemented is not clearly defined.
• The parents or the members of the public can not file a complaint against the erring school managements. The RTE Act stipulates that the complainant should get permission from the govt officials which will lead to corruption.

Quality is an Important Aspect

• The RTE Act does not stop with the promise of compulsory free education to the targeted group. Quality is an integral part of the RTE.  It speaks about comfortable teacher student ratio (1:30), curriculum reform and improvement in evaluation methods.
• It is estimated that about 1 cr eligible children are out of school today. Many more drop outs are there. About 1.2 cr child laborers are there. About 65,000 children are trafficked every year. To bring all of them into the free and compulsory education scheme is a tremendous job that requires a strong will and political commitment on the part of the govt. 
• RTE act says that retired teachers may be recruited to train and fix the drop outs and out of school children in classrooms appropriate to their age. These special teachers should be sympathetic and bias free. As one scholar said they should not only be equipped with suitable Pedagogy, but should also have a keen sense of adolescent psychology to tackle the hurdles of fear and shyness of the grown up children.
• Not only the special teachers, but the regular teachers should be trained towards being conscious of their role in the era of RTE and quality education to all. They should understand that many of the students brought to school through free and compulsory education  are first generation students and there is a class and perhaps a caste difference also exist between them and their students. They should overcome the bias created by this difference and should create a child friendly situation and inclusive space in the classroom.

Paucity of Good Teachers

• The teachers play the main role in fulfilling the ambitions of the RTE concept. They should understand that elimination of the so called useless students through the mechanism of failing them or creating fear through corporal punishments to get children work  have no place in the present context.
• Teachers are also expected not to limit their role as that of a “baby sitter”, keeping the child occupied  in the school hours without learning anything.
• When such situation prevails the parents use to send their children to some   tuition centers in their locality which also treat the students as culprits who should be treated with  physical punishments and hard home works.
• It is estimated that to implement the RTE Act about 5 to 10 lac new teachers are necessary in the coming years and 5 lac  more class rooms are to be constructed with necessary basic amenities.
• Who is going to train them?
• Who is going to fund for all these endeavors?
• Who is going to reorient the existing teachers towards a child centered education?
• Teacher training is a serious problem. The licensing authority  named by the RTE Act  is the NCTE which has licensed thousands of low quality training institutions.
• RTE Act instructs every state to name an academic authority to improve the curriculum, evaluation   and teacher training mechanisms.
• Many states have named SCERT for this purpose. But most of the states have not improved and equipped the SCERT for this serious and urgent task.

Paucity of Funds

• There are many estimates for the cost of implementing the RTE Act effectively. The Tapas Majumdar Committee estimated in the year1999 this cost as 14,000 cr rupees per annum. A recent estimate says that about 2 lac cr rupees is necessary to implement the act sincerely for the next few years. This amount should be shared between the centre and state in the ratio 68:32.
• The govt says that it cannot spend such a huge amount for this purpose. Many state govts in the Hindi speaking belt has said that they can spend only the centre’s share.
• It should be remembered that the govt have not hesitated to allocate more than 1 lac cr rupees per annum towards defense expenditure and this is going on increasing year by year.
• The neo liberal approach is characterized by the withdrawal of the state from welfare measures. But the state never withdraws from spending or reduces its spending. In fact it has increased its spending in defense, infrastructure development etc.
• The neoliberal approach says that improvements are possible without radically altering the system.  Inequality can be addressed without addressing the causes of inequality.  
• According to this approach, the solution for providing good drinking water is to sell bottled mineral water. In this way non commercial public spheres are converted into commercialised private spheres.
• Kothari commission had said that at least  6% of the GDP should be spent  for education. It was repeated in the New Education Policy of 1986.  But still the allocation for education is around 3% of the GDP.

An Important point to note..

• Reserving 25% seats for the weaker sections is a very important concept in addition to helping these students.
• The diversity of our society should be reflected in the classrooms. Both the teachers as well the co learners carry with them different life styles, vocabulary, cultural traits, mode of communication etc. Access to such a diverse cultural capital is facilitated in this way.   Not only the 25% students from the weaker sections are benefited by this, but the remaining 75% is also benefitted through this measure. The school managements and teachers should understand the deep significance of this concept and should try to implement this with all sincerity.
• In no way the students from these weaker sections would be allowed to experience a cultural shock in co learning with the remaining children. Once again the role of the teacher becomes very important in dealing this situation.