What are your suggestions for better implementation of the Right to Education Act?
The Right to Education was made a fundamental right by insertion of Article 21A in the Constitution under the 86th Amendment Act. This was given more teeth by the enactment of the RTE Act, 2009. The RTE Act of India bears a lot of similarities with the US policy of No Child Left Behind Act, which includes school accountability, assessment of standards and other forms of teacher training. The course of implementation in India also is decided by the discretion of the State governments. The primary recurring problem is the compulsory access to underprivileged sections of society even though the Section 12 (1) (c) of the Act has asked all the private schools to allow 25% of their seats to all the economically weaker sections. However, the process of admission is not perfect under the latter. This is clear in many vacancies in many cities of the country. The main issues plaguing the system are the absence of many CBSE schools in the database which is set by the State. Financial problems still continue to mar the system. Grievances regarding the 1km radius are also apparent. The latter can be handled if the state governments release the supporting funds to the private schools in time. Also, admission time under the admission process for the RTE Act is less which causes many people to miss the deadline. Thus, a single-point online window for all the school boards will help ease out this rush. Furthermore, a regular RTE compliance audit should also be conducted by the State Education Department.
Topics: GS-II: Social Sector Services Education Human Resources