Experts and policy makers in the field of education who attended a conference recently said that the objectives and goals set out in the Right to Education act are unrealistic and unachievable. They emphasized on the need for more dialogues with the nongovernmental organizations working in the field of education, different government organizations and educational service providers to bring the landmark legislation to reality.

The Right to Education Bill requires a relook

There is an urgent need to have a fresh relook into the RTE act. There is need to clear the confusion and concentrate on the outcomes rather than inputs. Only then the objective of providing compulsory primary education for children between 6 to 14 age groups can be achieved. The bill give importance to establishing better infrastructure in the form of buildings, playgrounds etc, which may not be feasible across the country. For instance there are schools in the slum areas which provide better education than the government schools, but do not have proper building and playgrounds. In the state of Gujarat, the government has brought about provisions to give recognition private schools based on their learning outcomes, rather than calling for infrastructural developments. The government has also taken initiative to reduce the irregularities in giving recognition by creating independent review committees which consists of educationalists and members of civil society.

The issue with reimbursement and age of students

The provision in the RTE says that schools can admit students with an age not less than six years at the entry level and thus be eligible for reimbursement from the government. But what happens in most of the states is that, children are admitted to schools at the age of five and so such schools will be not be provided with reimbursement from the government as stated in the RTE act. This issue can be solved by a simple administrative order. The age at which the child is admitted should be of little concern as it makes less difference if the age is 5 or 6.

The reservations might tempt the schools to increase fee

According to Mr. Mankad, who operates PRATHAM chain of low budget schools in Ahmadabad, the Gujarat government spends Rs 700 to 800 on an average every month on a child in the government run schools. In the case of low budget schools, they spend only Rs 100 to 300 per student. The RTE act suggests that the 25 per cent of the seats in private unaided schools should be reserved for students from the backward sections, and he doubts that this would tempt the private schools to raise their fees.

The government schools lag behind in many factors

Many studies that were conducted recently has shown that the government run schools lack in terms of quality of faculty and the learning outcomes of the students. Even though government run schools forms the largest number of schools in the country, the plight of the schools are not going to improve unless the government takes step to increase the accountability and claim ownership.

RTE act places misplaced importance on inputs rather than outcomes

The RTE act has placed more importance on inputs such as infrastructure rather than outcomes. Moreover there are no empirical evidence that proves that the students who are taught by Para or untrained teachers will get poor quality education when compared to those being taught by qualified teachers. An important point to be noted is that Para teachers devote more time in classrooms than trained teachers in government schools.

Policy making based on apprehensions, ideology and political influence

What the primary education sector in India needs is policy making which is based on empirical evidence. But what happens in India is the other way round. In India policies are made based on some ones apprehensions, ideology and political influence. This might have happened in the case of Right to Education Act. The cause effect relationship in the education sector must be carefully studied before framing policies.

Lack of clarity with the implementation of PPP model in India

Some of the experts opine that the Right to Education is a ground-breaking legislation. But they also mention that it lacks clarity in many areas, especially on the mechanism to implement the Public Private Partnership model in the education sector. A study conducted by ASSOCCHAM on the opportunities of private equity investment in the primary education has observed that the venture capitalist are ready to invest amounts ranging from 500 million to one billion dollars in Kindergarten to plus two sector.

Ignoring the low budget schools that provide education to the backward sections

In India there are about two lakh private schools in India which provides education to about 6 crore students. This also includes low cost schools which lacks the infrastructural facilities as stipulated by theact. So if these schools are shut down according to the bill, where will these students go? The legislation do not offer any kind of assistance or incentives to those who operates low budget schools which offer education to children from slums and tribal areas. Such schools are operated in the wake of great difficulties and only little help reaches them. The act has not taken into consideration the ground realities in the rural and tribal parts of India and slums too. There are remote areas in India where electricity is a luxury; library is a luxury and so on. The act will put an end to low budget schools which provides education for children from such areas.

What should be done?

There is an increased need to strengthen the schools management committees which could effectively monitor accountability of school and focus on each child’s development. Learning should be individualized and the information provided should be channelized for improving the learning of the students. The Indian primary education should carefully observe the different international models to bring about improvements in the syllabus and other important contents and should also look at Public Private Partnership seriously as it can bring solutions to a number of problems that our education system face.