The Right to Education Act was passed in April 2010. The main objective of the bill is to make primary education in India compulsory, so that every child has an opportunity to go to school. But a report on education in the rural India suggests that the progress has not been achieved in the ability of students to learn. According to the report, the learning ability of the students is not in par with the huge investment made in the primary education and increase in the number of enrolment. It has also failed to create improvement in the quality of teaching.

The Report from ASER

The study was carried out by ASER center with assistance from UNICEF and UNESCO. ASER is a group of civil society organizations led by Pratham. The study was conducted to determine the areas that need to be concentrated to improve the primary education. The study was conducted in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkand and Rajasthan. The areas that the study concentrated were organization of the school, background of the teacher, ability of the teacher in teaching, class room processes and learning outcomes. As a part of the study 30,000 students were interviewed from rural India. In order to make the primary education compulsory and effective, the government is expected to spend an amount of Rs 2.31 trillion over a period of five years starting from 2010 April. In addition to the various inputs provided to the schools, an evaluation should be carried out to determine the means by which these inputs are organized and used in schools.

The impact of Right to Information act

According to the report, the progress of students is very slow and that less than 30 per cent of the students in the 2nd  standard were only able to read simple words that was expected to be read by a 1st standard student. It also says that only 40 per cent of the students in the 3rd standard were able to read such simple words which a 1st standard kid is expected to read. The situation in high performing states is no different. Students in 2nd and 4th standard from high performing states were not able to write simple words with out mistakes.

The situation in the case of Mathematics is even worse. Out of the total number of students interviewed only less than 25 per cent of the students were able to perform subtraction with two and three digit numbers. One of the main objectives behind RTE is to make learning student friendly. But the study suggests that the situation is far from ideal.

Attendance is important than enrolment

The study also suggests implementing systems that will monitor attendance. The HRD ministry claims that the enrolment in primary schools is above 95 per cent. But the study has found that attendance in schools were very low. In some cases attendance was below 50 per cent. This calls for urgent measure to monitor and understand the participation of students in the school rather than tracking enrolment. It should monitor the attendance pattern of each and every student. According to an official from the ministry of HRD, the government is aware of some of the problems and is taking steps to find solutions to them. He said that we cannot expect to improve the primary education in just one day. He added that there are three more years for the act to be implemented and that things are going to change and the impact will be visible in a few years time.

The importance of quality of teachers

Vimala Ramachandran, head of ERU consultants says that the burden of non learning in the primary education is adding up. According to Vimala, the training given to teachers is in adequate and even if it is provided; it is just for name sake. The study conducted by ASER suggest that the teacher in charge of a class was absent in the class for about one third of the time allotted for teaching. So if the quality of teaching is to be improved, then the government should make sure that proper and effective training is given to teachers.

The government should make sure that the recruitment process for teachers and training given to them will assess the knowledge of the teachers. In addition to this, the ability of teachers to explain subjects in manner which is interesting to students should also be assessed and improved. In addition to use of text books other materials should be used along with activities to make teaching and learning more effective. The report also suggests that, including families in the process of teaching will improve the outcome.

Eligibility Test for teachers

The HRD ministry has said that the CBSE has conducted an exam to measure the aptitude of the teachers and this test is introduced as an eligibility test for all teachers across India.

Revision of text books

The report also underlines the fact that students who attend school regularly has improved in terms of learning outcome. It also suggests for an urgent revision of the text books. The content of the text books should be realistic and should be suited for the age of the students. It has also found that the class rooms in the primary schools are not child friendly.

Defaulting in implementing RTE

The Ministry of HRD has announced that some of the economically strong states have not taken initiative to implement the Right to Education Act. States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal has defaulted in implementing the Right to Information Act. The HRD minister, Kapil Sibal has said that it will be a historic failure not to implement the RTE act in the states.

A nation wide campaign, Shiksha ka Haq has been announced by the HRD ministry to create awareness among the public about RTE. It will be launched in Haryana on November 11 to create awareness with the cooperation of civil societies.