{M-H-O} Right to Education in Force - Future OR Flop Show

A Historical Bill for Indian Democracy.. Nearly eight years after the Constitution was amended to make education a fundamental right, the government on Thursday implemented a historic law to provide free and compulsory education to all children in age group of 6-14 years. The 86th Constitutional amendment making education a fundamental right was passed by Parliament in 2002. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, a law to enable the implementation of the fundamental right, was passed by Parliament last year. Both the Constitutional amendment and the new law came into force from on Thursday. The new law makes it obligatory on part of the state governments and local bodies to ensure that every child gets education in a school in the neighborhood. Its implementation will directly benefit close to 1 crore children who do not go to schools at present. These children, who have either dropped out from schools or have never been to any educational institution, will be enrolled in schools. At present, there are nearly 22 crore children in the relevant age group. However, 4.6 per cent of these children (nearly 92 lakh) are out of school, a ministry official said. The school management committee or the local authority will identify the drop-outs or out of school children above six years of age and admit them in classes appropriate to their age after giving special training. The Act makes it a right of every child to get education. The Act makes it obligatory for the appropriate governments to ensure that every child gets free elementary education. The Act mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections. The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act. As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act. Sibal said that the government has arranged the required funds for implementing the law. India now joins a select few countries in the world where education is a fundamental right. Hurdles..Hurdles & only Hurdles...... The road ahead will be a difficult one. 1) The availability of good teachers has become one of the most crucial crisis points in the Act's promise to make quality education available to all.Next 6 months will require more than 20 lakh Primary teachers with BeD Degree. 2) In many schools there are hundreds of students in one class and the gap between the training given to teachers and what they practise on the ground is huge. 3) The other major infrastructure hurdle will be establishing a balance between Centre and State.Many of the rural schools still run under Jhopidi's & Tin Tappar.Basic infrastructre still don't exist and talking for right to education for every child looks nothing more than a thought. 4) How a person sitting in Delhi would know that whether the school authorities are working properly in a adivasi region of Jharkhand or not .Several regulatory measures can only be taken after individual inputs from state governments.Because ultimately its the responsibilty of the government to look after the succes of this noble thought. 5) Also, questions about how the responsibilities, both fiscal and social, will be divided remain unanswered. While a nominal ratio of 65 per cent by the Centre and 35 per cent by the State has been settled, the Centre has to be prepared to shoulder a 100 per cent burden if the situation should arise. Only that would show their commitment to the cause. 6) The most important is that the level & depth of corruption is so much in our political & educational system & will only resist successful regulation of this bill.This treat can deteriate this bill very easliy like NREGA which is not at all benefiting the poor people where money is blindly pumped to the government NGO's. 7) These and other problems litter the path to ensuring a fundamental right to all children across the country. But the HRD Minister seems confident.Anyhow Nothing will change overnight, but at least we have created a framework to take this project forwards. 8) Certain schools have already challenged the law in the Supreme Court as being "unconstitutional" and violating fundamental rights of unaided private educational institutions. However, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said that legal process would not affect the implementation of law. Our Resposibilty... Biggest worry of all is that the Government still has no proper path or plan on which it will run thier ambition so how to go about their vision. Neither the letter of law nor a speech from the Prime Minister will ensure education to all the children in India. But if the many infrastructure hurdles can be crossed, then the RTE could change the face of education in the country.   Well Its not just the responsibilty of the government, its the public like you , like me, who needs to make this thought succseful,leave corruption,be responsible, help the government to achieve their goal People like us will be involved in the schools , authorities , government , So lets spread the thought. Regards Shail

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