A BROAD ANALYSIS ON RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT

A BROAD ANALYSIS ON RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT ( JUST IN PRINT)

Education system plays a significant role in shaping the future of children of a country. A sustainable and effective education system nurtures all the qualities of a child to become a resourceful citizen in future life.



To become an economic super power, India needs to create opportunities to trap the unutilized and/or underutilized human resources for capacity building. An education system, which is capable of fostering the innate qualities of the students, is what India needs most now.



Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal termed the Act a "national enterprise that would help shapes India's future". The legislation would not only ensure every child's right to education, but puts the obligation on the government to impart it. The law would not interfere with the various state governments attempts to provide elementary education. On the medium of instruction, there is a provision to provide elementary education, as far as possible, in the mother tongue of the child. The law would ensure that the child got free, compulsory and quality education by qualified teachers.

As the curriculum would be less rigorous, it would ensure all-round development of children. On infrastructure, there is a provision for establishing recognition authority in every State under which all schools would have to fulfill the minimum requirement of infrastructure within three years. Otherwise, they would lose recognition. Similarly appointment of teachers had to be approved by the academic committee.



The law has come as a boon to India and is expected to be a big boost to children's education as out of every 100 children attending elementary school only 12 reached the graduation level compared to the global average of 27. In Europe it was 50-70 students reaching college from the elementary level. The HRD Ministry expects that the law would increase India's average to 15 by 2012 and to 30-35 by 2020.




To meet the growing need of a vibrant and dynamic education system, the Government of India has implemented ambitious Right to Education Act (REA) in 1 April, 2010. This Act actually mandates the overhaul of school curricula and traditional examination procedures drastically.

With the enactment of the Right to Education Act (REA), all the children between the ages of 6 and 14 are eligible to get opportunity of free and compulsory elementary education. The Act aims at expansion, inclusion and excellence of education system to help the children of the country to blossom into enlightened personalities.


As per the new law, the schools need to have certain minimum facilities like adequate teachers, playground and infrastructure. The government will evolve some mechanism to help marginalized schools complying with the provisions of the Act. The Finance Commission has provided Rs.25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act. As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs. 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act.



Special attention has been paid in outlining the school curriculum and evaluation procedure. Maintaining conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution, curricula are to be designed focusing into all round physical and mental development of a child. Efforts to build up knowledge, potentiality and talent of a child through educational activities, explorations and discoveries in a child friendly and child-centric manner have been emphasized. One of the important tasks of the teachers is making child free of fear, trauma and anxiety and helping him expressing his views freely. The REA prohibits private tuition and mandates comprehensive and continuous evaluation of child understands of knowledge and his/her ability the same.

The children have legal rights as the constitutional amendment Act describes. Interesting fact is that crores of children have not seen school and so they are devoid of fundamental rights. Thus government is breaching the legal rights of children. Who cares!



Government did its job of enlisting it in the Constitution. Leaders don’t have enough time to ponder over any issue (except vote bank management issues). Administrators don’t bother themselves to think at large as they remain sure of no deduction in salary for underperformance. And the beneficiaries themselves do not know if they have any right, whatsoever.

Right to Education Act provides some measures to impart education to all: such as; the poor and unprivileged children, especially schedule caste, schedule tribe and physically challenged, will get admission to private schools as 25 percent seats will be reserved for them in those schools. To restrain drop-outs there has been measures. There will be no physical punishment, no interview or test at the time of admission; no one will be failed in the examination in any circumstances till eighth standard. But still the Act has some measure flaws: such as; the same provisions for private and public schools, confusion over distribution of financial responsibilities between State and Center.



It is mentioned in the Act that there must be some reform in qualities of education. But if schools’ infrastructure and facilities vary hugely and if there is such a huge gap between schools, how would anyone think of bringing quality whatsoever.
My question is why are people still being deprived of one right that the United Nations (UN) representatives from every country has promised the whole world? 115 million primary school aged children do not go to school and that could be from a choice to not go or a restriction and the UN is supposed to end all of the restrictions so we can have a better, smarter, and more educated world.

Some reasons I have came up with are because they do not want to go to school or because there are not enough teachers. Another reason is because they get their education somewhere else, because they are needed to work at home, or because they cannot afford to go to school. Also because they do not need an education, because they need to work to earn money for their family, or because there are not schools near where they live. A ninth reason is because there are not enough schools or because it is more important to educate boys/girls. I do not think any of these ten reasons are acceptable.



We are all entitled to an education and because a family does not have enough money for school or because there are not schools near where they live should not be an excuse. If the UN meant for us all to have an education, why do we have to pay for it when some people cannot? School is not the only type of education but anyone who wants it is supposed to get it. It seems like the government or United Nations could help out families who cannot afford it or people who are having other difficulties with school.

I think a solution to this issue would be for the United Nations to start a program for families that are not able to send their children for school or go to school for whatever reason. There could be volunteer workers who raise money for families so they could go to school, or raise money to make a new school, or they could raise money to buy more materials for a school.


Why do we have to go to school? Well because it is the best option for your future. What would you prefer, without much education you will end up working 50 hour weeks while the other person who has a better education is making more money in half the time, Because those clothes and bills aren't going to pay themselves and because the new clothes and the new life isn't going to be greeting you with money. Once married or left alone outside your mothers house, you are all on your own, and if you plan on living somewhere cozy, then I suggest getting a job to pay all those bills which you will be receiving for you and your life. Education is the key role in life and it is what makes a person who he is.



Education is what shows the people surrounding you, your occupation that can then slowly lead to your likes and dislikes. The better options the Man/Woman has, the more chances you have on finding the right person in your life. Education is the seed of life, without it, you are unable to take life to its max, to go further than beyond, to live life to the fullest. It is what makes a person think how he thinks. It is what makes a person who he is. It makes his life. It also shows the people who he is, which result in their friendly or cruel gesture to them. With a diploma or a degree in something makes your job a lot more fun and a lot easier to do because you would be enjoying what you do, otherwise you wouldn't have went that far in that field. The battle for jobs in between diploma's Vs. Less educated would be a match everyone knew who would win before it even started. Education has some special abilities, of which are, better salary than the common person, healthier or happier life. Education is the most important thing when it comes to job hunting.



When job hunting, the person with a degree or a diploma in that field will do much better than someone who just passed high school. Education makes your life. It chooses your faith. With it, you can do the most things of the things people less educated than you could do. Education isn't something that comes from laziness or something you can buy whenever you would like, instead, you have to earn it. You have to sit here in school and listen to the teacher and the things she says you have to do, otherwise you will find your life miserable, and you won't take it to the limit of which you can take. Life comes with some special needs to acquire the most of it. Education is the key to a good job. It will guide you throughout your life. It will choose your job, the best one for you, which will be something you prefer to do.

With more money and a good job comes a better life. Why not enjoy life, enjoy it with all the money education rolled in. All the time you spent in school and all the time spent studying and getting good marks finally pays off. Now since you have your great job, what now? Well, now you keep the money and live a good life. How, well, you eat the best things possible and do the things possible. With the perfect job and the perfect life, depending on what you want to do, you could have shopping sprees every day. Education isn't something that should be played as a joke, this is the thing that will choose your faith and then, the rest is up to you. Don't be afraid to spend money when you have lots of it, remember, the money you are getting isn't from doing anything, its form working hard all those years in school, so enjoy it and Do "The Right Thing"

Education makes a man who he is and what he does. It chooses his faith and when he is on the right path, he leaves him on his own, to make his own decisions with his new life with Education. It shows the surrounding people who you are, what you like and what you don't. Education has to be used the right way to be drive out the most of life. Only education can help you in the future, so why abuse it, and take it if you can.


The Act provides education for 14 years of age of a child, but what about the fact that after the age, disparity of opportunity increases? There have been some provisions for controlling capitation fees. Not to talk of government failure in stopping the capitation fees prevalent in our education system, government is not regulating high fees of private schools.



Private schools have said after the sixth pay commission hike, salaries of teachers have gone up and added to their financial burden. "Moreover, inflation has caused other expenses to go up. In such a scenario, allowing 25% students to study free would be an additional burden. Where will the money for free uniforms and books come from?" said R C Jain, president, Delhi State Public School Management Association. Children between the ages of 6 and 14 have been transformed into a special category of citizens. But an important question that needs to be addressed is that of quality and responsibility. Who will be responsible for giving the children good quality education?


The local authorities or school principals should ensure that children attend schools regularly. It is the state's responsibility to provide education. Reservation of 25 per cent of seats for poor children in private schools will create further division among students. Also, there are expenses other than school fees. Who will bear the cost? Can the government force all private hospitals to take care of a few patients free of cost? Can it enable some passengers to travel free of cost in air-conditioned coaches of trains? I do not think the experiment of reserving seats will work. The right to education of children has been rightly upheld. But it must not remain a mere right to school enrolment. There should be a corresponding obligation on the part of students and parents to ensure that children have a minimum attendance of 75 per cent, and minimum standards of academic attainment. Otherwise, vast resources will be squandered away without any tangible benefits.

Going through these facets of the RTE, where we find this Act counting on superbly. Right from the beginning, it has been scoring low on all fronts. The Right has been given to children but there’s hardly anyone who is benefiting from it.

I must highlight the failure of the contemporary system of education, the growing frustration of the Indian youth and the apathy shown towards the natural talents.

The irony of the present education system is that it provides clues to earn a living without teaching the art of living. Restructuring the system is essential to motivate the students in right direction. The atmosphere in most of the institutions today breeds insecurity and frustration. Our youth certainly do not deserve to be trapped in negative emotions.

So in conclusion, everyone deserves the right to education, and not everyone is getting it, so why not ask for it now?


SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
NEAR PROFESSORS’ COLONY,
BHIMA BHOI ROAD,
BUDHARAJA,
SAMBALPUR – 768004
ODISHA.
PIN- 768004
MOB- 09937965779