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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Focus on RTE by Vatsala Shrangi

Focus on RTE by Vatsala Shrangi

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published Published on Mar 9, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 9, 2012
-Myeducationtimes.com

The 12th Five-Year Plan will be focusing on the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Vatsala Shrangi reports

The 12th Five-Year Plan, which has been delayed and likely to be released by April, is going to focus on the Right to Education (RTE) Act as its central theme. Apart from RTE, the other key areas will include higher education and the setting up of central universities.

"The 12th Five-Year Plan is still in its drafting stage. The two sectors - education and health - will be the focus this year. Under education, implementation of RTE, which had been allocated around rupees two lakh and thirty one thousand crore for the last five years, will be a priority. This means, approximately, around Rs 45-50,000 crore will be spent on its implementation every year, which is a big amount and has to be substantiated," says Mamta Verma, director, media, HRD, Press Information Bureau.

Challenges

The concern for RTE is understandable. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2011, private school enrolment is increasing in most states despite RTE. Since RTE came into force in 2010, the two major obstacles have been availability of teachers and setting up of neighbourhood schools. Presently, there is a shortage of nearly five lakh teachers while about three lakh teachers, teaching at the elementary level, are untrained.

As per the RTE roadmap, neighbourhood schools are to be established and improved infrastructure to be ensured as per the pupil-teacher ratio (one teacher: 30 children) - both by March 2013. The provision for training untrained teachers is to be met by 2015.

According to the annual report 2010-11 (MHRD), the provisions of RTE are being implemented through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Accordingly, the SSA norms have been revised to align them with the requirement of the RTE Act. SSA is being implemented in partnership with state governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192 million children.

Pending Matters

As to the other issues concerning higher education, Verma informs that the bill for setting up 15 more central universities in states like Rajasthan and Uttaranchal, passed three-four years ago, is being implemented now.

As per the recent government decision to tone down its ambition to set up 14 Universities of Innovation, for which the HRD had moved a new Cabinet note without the numeric specification, she says, "The government has withdrawn the numeric specification. This is because it doesn't have sufficient funds. It might finally end up setting up the universities, but the specification has been withdrawn for the time being."

Besides, Verma concludes that the foreign university bill, which has been pending since 2009, is with the standing committee, which has made a few recommendations for it to go to the Cabinet. Then, it can be taken up in the Parliament for clearance, possibly this year itself.

The Times of India, 7 March, 2012, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-07/news/31131433_1_rte-act-neighbourhood-schools-lakh-teachers


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