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Right To Education likely to be watered down by Akshaya Mukul

In what could end up diluting the Right to Education Act, the government is considering a crucial amendment whereby schools will not be required to admit all applicants and can screen and select most of the students who will gain entry.

The "admission-as-an entitlement" provision will be limited to only the poor children in the neighbourhood and seats for them will be pegged at 25%. Put simply, schools will continue to have the right to screen 75% of the admissions, in a major amendment that has been prompted by sustained lobbying by private schools. Public schools across the country were up in arms, insisting that the no-screening clause could seriously affect their quality.

Section 13 of RTE Act not only bans screening but also fixes a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a school for first contravention and Rs 50,000 for each subsequent contravention.

Schools as well as state governments are also agitated about the no-detention provision -- which guarantees automatic promotion to the next class irrespective of a student's performance -- in the law and are demanding a change.

Signalling a rethink, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, "There are practical problems with no-screening. How will schools like Doon, Mayo, Modern and others give random admission to children? Therefore, I have suggested that while schools will not screen 25% of poor children in the neighbourhood who have to be taken, 75% will go through the screening system that the school already has in place."

Pointing out that even Navodaya Vidyalayas did screening, Sibal said a practical solution was needed to implement important legislation like the RTE Act.

With Muslim organizations agitated about madrassas not coming within the ambit of RTE Act, it has also been decided to sort out the anomaly. The RTE Act defines only recognized schools as schools while most madrassas function outside the purview of the formal set-up and, hence, are not recognized. Muslim leaders argue that the stipulation under the RTE requiring all educational institutions to acquire recognition -- which by implication will include madarsas -- is at odds with Article 30 of the Constitution which gives minority communities freedom to set up and run their own institutions.

That RTE is going through several amendments is only natural, given its ambitious intent and sweep. The first round of amendment in RTE is already with the parliamentary standing committee. Amendments pertain to giving an advisory role to the School Management Committee in minority educational institutions and widening the scope of 'child with disability' so that it includes those suffering from autism, celebral palsy, mental retardation and other disabilities.

The government is also seized of another amendment; the one that seeks to give SMCs an advisory role in all aided schools. This amendment was suggested by Kerala politicians who said letting minority schools have SMCs in an advisory role and not giving the same privilege to aided schools will put the latter in a disadvantageous position.