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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Education experts pitch for major changes in RTE Act by Rashmi R Parida

The goals of the Right to Education (RTE) Act are unrealistic and unachievable in its entirety education experts and policymakers said at a conference here today, and endorsed the need for more dialogues with civil society, government agencies and educational service providers to bring the landmark legislation to fruition.
            
There is an imperative need to look afresh into the RTE Act, iron out its ambiguities and focus on outcomes rather than inputs to achieve the objective of providing compulsory primary education for children in the 6-14 age groups, the panellists said at the conference.

The third annual School Choice National Conference, titled 'Catalysing Education for All: Intention, Innovation, and Implementation', was organized by Centre for Civil Society (CCS) at India Habitat Centre.
            
Setting the tone of the discussion, Mr. Sudhir Mankad, former Chief Secretary of Gujarat, spoke of the Gujarat government's efforts to negotiate the challenges of implementing the Act. The state has made provisions to grant recognition to private schools based on the learning outcomes, rather than focusing on infrastructural norms (Clause 19). He also spoke of the government's attempt to reduce irregularities in granting recognition by creating independent review committees made of educationists and members of civil society.
       
Elaborating, he said the RTE provides that schools can enroll children not less than six years in age at the entry level and thus qualify for reimbursements from the government. "But the fact is that in many states, children get enrolled at the age of five. That means these schools will be deprived from government reimbursements under the RTE Act," he pointed out.
           
"This problem can be sorted out by a simple administrative order. It should be of little concern whether children get admitted at the age of 5 or 6," said Mr. Mankad, who had earlier worked with the Union Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Human Resource Development. "
            
Mr. Mankad, who runs PRATHAM chain of low budget schools in Ahmedabd, said the Gujarat government spent, on an average, spent Rs 700-800 per month on a child in a government school while low budget schools spent only Rs 100-300. "The provision of 25 per cent reservations in unaided schools would tempt them hike their fees," he apprehended. 
            
He commented on the poor state of education provided by governments, saying that although the government owns the largest number of primary schools in India, unless they increase accountability and ownership, the quality of education will continue to deteriorate.
            
Earlier, delivering her keynote address, Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, of Institute of Education, University of London, said the RTE Act betrayed misplaced emphasis on inputs rather than outcomes.  "There is no evidence to suggest that students being taught from para (untrained) teachers will be getting a poor quality of education as compared those being taught by qualified teachers. Also, para teachers are spending more time in classrooms as compared to regular teachers," she said, quoting reports.   
             
Emphasising the importance of evidence-based policy making in education, she said, "Policies should not be made on the basis of somebody's hunch, ideology or political expediency. This may be the case with regard to the RTE. The causal relationship in the education sector needs to be carefully analysed."
            
Mr. Dilip Modi, CMD of Spice Communications and former president of ASSOCHAM, said the RTE Act was a ground-breaking legislation, but it was marked by lack of clarity on the mechanism to implement the PPP model in education sector.
            
"ASSOCHAM did a survey for private equity investment in education, and it revealed that venture capitalists were willing to invest from 500 million to one billion dollars in KG-Class 12 sector, the central point of education," he said.
            
Mr Modi said the needs to be debated and monitored whether educational entrepreneurs are willing to invest in real estate or in education. "But the bottom line of the debate should be students, who are the most important stakeholders in the RTE."
            
The conference deliberated on a wide spectrum of issues in four broad areas: 'Implementation of RTE: One Year After'; 'Secondary Education: Renewed Objectives'; 'Public Private Partnerships: Building sustainable models'; and 'Disruptive Innovation in Education: Looking to Technology'.
            
Prof.  James Tooley, who teaches Education Policy at the University of Newcastle and runs a chain of low cost private schools in Ghana, said there are two lakh private schools in India that provide education to six crore children. If these schools are forced to shut down under the RTE Act, where will these children go, he quizzed.  
           
Mr. Sem Haokip, CEO of Society for Promotion of Tribal Welfare and Development, an NGO working for promotion of education in Nagaland, described the RTE as a legislation that held no incentive for "people like me running small private schools to provide education to tribals in the face of insurmountable odds."
           
The RTE Act is very prescriptive and has not taken into account ground realities in rural and tribal areas and urban slums. "In our place, library is a luxury, electricity is a luxury, playgrounds and potable water are luxuries. The RTE Act is a ploy to kill initiatives of people like us."
          
Mr. Michael Latham, Regional Director at the South Asia, Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), emphasized the need to strengthen School Management Committees, which could effectively monitor accountability of schools and focus on each child's development.
          
"There is need for individualized learning and channelize the exponential growth in information. In addition, there is an imperative need to promote the concept of classroom from anywhere, anytime," he said.   
          
The conference provided an opportunity for the government and all other stakeholders to take stock of the RTE and the challenges and pitfalls that bedevil its implementation. It also pondered over international models that hade innovated government expenditure on access to private education as well as feasibility of Charter Schools and School Vouchers.
          
Most of the panellists were unanimous in their contention that the RTE Act needed to be revisited, debated de novo and carefully amended in order to make it effective and a real game-changer.
 
About School Choice Campaign

School Choice Campaign (SCC) advocates policy reform ideas to improve quality and access to education especially for the poor. By working with policy makers, education experts and grass root level activists, SCC is focused on:

·  Expanding choice and competition through school vouchers;

·  Pedagogical and operational autonomy to government schools;

·  Converting state funding to per student basis; and

·  De-licensing, deregulation and decentralisation
 
SCC work spans across seven states- Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar. CCS has entered into long-term partnerships with 250 NGOs in these states to take the message of school choice to the people, politicians and policy makers.