Right to free education gets a leg up

Cabinet Okays Bill, Over To Parliament

The Right to Education Bill, a big-ticket move to make education a fundamental right for every child in the 6-14 age group, was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday. It’s slated to be introduced in Parliament in December. If passed, one of the longest awaited political promises would be honoured.

Activists for universal education are, however, keeping their fingers crossed, for, it may go into limbo if the Bill is referred to the standing committee. If it’s not passed now, there is hardly any possibility of the RTE Bill being passed next year as the government will shift into election mode. This would mean the Bill will lapse and the new government would have to start work on it virtually from scratch.

If RTE becomes law, it would empower the six-yearold 86th Constitutional amendment that made free and compulsory education a fundamental right. The RTE Bill sets down guidelines for states and the Centre to execute and enforce this right. Earlier, education was part of the directive principles of state policy.

After being considered by a high-powered group for more than two years and facing stiff resistance from the ministries of finance and law and the Planning Commission, the Bill first went to the Cabinet in August but due to objection of the Planning Commission, it was referred to a GoM. This mainly looked into the finances of the scheme.

The earlier draft had said the financial sharing would be done as per discussions with the state governments but the GoM decided to make the central share more specific.

UNLOCKING LEARNING

Right to Education Bill seeks to make free & compulsory education a fundamental right

Aims at setting minimum standards for both public and private schools Prescribes pupil-teacher ratio of 40:1

Makes it compulsory for all private schools to reserve 25% of seats for poor neighbourhood children

Education as right to cost Rs 12000cr a yr

The government has slated to introduce the long awaited Right to Education Bill in Parliament in December. The Bill ensures fundamental right for children aged between 6-12.

While stating that both the Centre and states would be responsible for the finances, it said the Centre would prepare the capital and recurring expenditure and provide it as grants-in-aid to each state from time to time. The GoM also decided to consult the finance commission for additional resources. However, the share between the Centre and states is yet to be decided.

To cost the exchequer nearly Rs 12,000 crore every year, even private unaided schools would not be out of its ambit since 25% of seats would have to be reserved for poor children in the neighbourhood. On its part, the Centre would reimburse the cost to these schools.

The legislation has a host of features that stress not only on reaching out to every child in the 6-14 age category but also on quality and accountability of the state and education system. Sources said the legislation is aimed at dealing with criticism that state-run schools lag behind in quality. To ensure that the law gets effectively implemented, the Bill has provisions prohibiting teachers from undertaking private tuitions as well as not letting them being used for noneducational purposes.

To ensure that parents have equal stake in the system, the Bill provides for School Management Committees in all government and aided schools. Each committee would monitor and oversee the working of the school, manage its assets and ensure quality. There is also a provision that teacher vacancy should never exceed more than 10% of the total strength.

To monitor the implementation of the law, the Bill proposes a National Commission for Elementary Education to be headed by a chairperson. He would be appointed by a committee consisting of the PM, leaders of opposition in both Houses of Parliament, HRD minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker.

Will it finally become law in December?

Will the Right to Education Bill finally go through? Those who have been pushing for it are nervous. ‘‘The government will have to be really proactive if it wants to pass the Bill in the December session,’’ says Vinod Raina, one of its architects.

If the Bill is not passed in December, and elections are held around May 2009, the government may get another shot at passing the Bill if there’s another Lok Sabha session. But if elections are held around February, the December session will be this government’s last and the Bill will lapse.

There is an alternative. Although proposed legislations that have monetary implication are normally introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government could introduce this Bill in the Rajya Sabha. That way, it won’t lapse and can be carried forward by the next government.

40:1 student-teacher ratio, 25% quota for poor proposed

The Right to Education Bill is revolutionary in several respects. It aims at setting minimum standards for both public and private schools so that the quality of education improves throughout the country and current inequities are levelled. The pupil-teacher ratio prescribed by the Bill is 40:1.

A controversial clause in the Bill makes it compulsory for all private schools to reserve 25% of their seats for poor children from the neighbourhood. This includes elite ICSE and IB schools. Not surprisingly, the Bill was fiercely opposed by the private school lobby.

In a bid to drastically improve the quality of education, the Bill has outlawed nonformal education.

All non-formal schools across the country will have three years to upgrade themselves to formal schools, which provide the minimum standards prescribed by the Bill. The Bill has also done away with the contract system of appointing teachers. Currently, schools can appoint teachers on a contract basis and pay them a paltry sum of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 a month, whether they are qualified or not. According to the Bill, all teachers, both in private and government schools, will be appointed on a permanent basis and given a full salary as long as they are qualified.

The bill was virtually buried for two years. In between, a mid-census correction reduced the child population by six million so budgets were halved from Rs 3,21,000 crore to Rs 1,51,000 crore. So a team of educationists, two of whom were involved in drafting the Bill, wrote a letter to the prime minister uprising him of the situation. The PM met them in August 2007 and a new draft of the bill was drawn up in February 2008. The Bill was tossed between several ministries, including law and finance, before it finally reached the Cabinet in August.

Source:- The Times of India 1 November 2008 P.1 New Delhi
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