Right To Education: A long way ahead

Kudos to Mr.Kapil Sibal for steering India to a feat which few in the world have achieved. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 boasts access to education for children between 6-14 age group and makes elementary education a fundamental right under Article 21 (A) of the Constitution The act gives opportunity to the deprived children who have been walking the lanes of illiteracy in different sections of the society .With the act coming into force on Thursday , all eyes are tracking the development of this act and eager to see its implementation. Though the act has been welcomed in all the quarters of the society yet apprehensions relating to the implementation of the act have been doing the rounds. Even the govt. has agreed that it would be difficult to implement the act due to lack of infrastructure. The State governments are against the provision that while the policies and directives would be given by the Centre, the onus of the implementation would be entirely on the State. States like Maharashtra are ill prepared to implement the provisions of RTE owing to a lack of funds, shortage of teachers and poor infrastructure. Further in Punjab drop out ranges from 20 to 40%, and one of the major reasons cited is the non-seriousness of school teachers who are largely absent. There are issues of gender biasness and unrecognised schools. Then, there are issues relating to training of teachers as most of the teachers are untrained. The teachers in India need to be trained in imparting knowledge in a child -friendly environment. Another pertinent question is funding of the Act.
The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states while the Centre and the States have agreed to share the financial burden in the ratio of 55:45 for implementing the Act. It is matter of speculation as to how seriously the states will allot the budget to this act as recently Maharashtra has completely ignored it. As per the Act, private educational institutions should reserve 25 per cent seats for children from the weaker sections of society. Again the private schools are reluctant to incorporate the act and the government does not have adequate control over private schools to compel them reserve quota of seats as laid down. They have already filed petition in Supreme Court
claiming that the Act violates the rights of private educational institutions under Article 19(1)(g) which mandated maximum autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference. With such diverse hindrances in the path of RTE Act, one will have to wait and watch the course of the act as to how it unfolds in the coming times.