In probably one of the most daring decision, the Indian government will pass the Right to Education [RTE] today.
The right to education is recognized as a human right by the United Nations and is understood to establish an entitlement to free, compulsory primary education for all children, an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all children, as well as equitable access to higher education, and a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. – wikipedia
India joins the list of few countries where Right to Education is a fundamental right. The Act promises to ensure education for all children between 6 and 14, a whopping 22 crore children, out of which nearly 1.1 crore are out of school and the act makes it obligatory for the appropriate governments to ensure that every child gets free elementary education.
Right to 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.
Implementation Challenges
Lack of teachers, funds, prevalent corruption,state-center differences, infrastructure and most importantly, the lack of will power to execute – there are multiple challenges for the government to go beyond lip service.
Only time will tell how real is RTE.
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Check out our coverage of Education Industry in India, fortnightly theme ending April 11, 2010.
The decision is excellent and will impact the ground realities of our country. Kudos to the Government for this decision!!
Fingers crossed for implementation part however…:-)
Cheers,
Arvind
That’s a very good first step, IMHO. And the Implementation Challenges that you pointed out are spot on.
Though making education a constitutional right doesn’t directly mean that all children will get educated, it still is a very important step towards creating a framework for them to get quality education.
As rightly pointed out in the article, it will become just another policy confined to the books if efficient implementation is not ensured.
Future lies in the education of children…so let’s hope and all work towards a brighter future.
The passing the bill is easire, implementing the same is hard. In India where there are several school without any classroom, toilet, water etc, RTE won’t be easy to implement. But for sure it is going to help. They need to educate parents first to send their kids to school and even with poor infrastructure they will be able to study. Something is better than noting
ur absolutely right pradeep they will but they r not ready to apply that india has to improve a lot
This is a good April Fools Day joke. I approve of it.
Now, it is possible/accessible to rich person’s kid to humble person’s kid in the same school.
Okay all this is great….but then there is this private institution monsters what are they gonna do abt it. Does this bill means even in private schools the eduction is free for kids under 14.That cant be true..Those private schools charge in 1000′s per month are they gonna give up that????? and how many parents want their kids to go to Gov schools even though they are free. They would definitely want their kids to study in Private schools though they gotta pay so much….I dont know will see…how it shapes up!!!!!!!!
my son was 3.5years old when he was send to ST PAULS SCHOOL IN BANGALORE. THEY took 46000 in cash and after two months they told us take my son out of the school .They didnot return the moneyand I dont know whom to say and who can help me.I dont have so much of money pls help me