Implications of RTE act

[G.Subramaniam]

http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_d...on_1596941





DNA Principals’ Talk: The crisis confronting school education

Published: Monday, Oct 10, 2011, 10:00 IST

By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA





Principals’ Talk is an annual event with DNA, where principals of some of the best schools in Mumbai gather to discuss the most important policy issues confronting the future of education and the management of educational institutions. As always, the response of the principals was overwhelming. At a Conversation Forum moderated by DNA’s RN Bhaskar, these principals and the principal secretary, education, government of Maharashtra, Sumit Mullick, discussed some of the issues bothering them.



This year the topic was ‘How to cope with new regulations relating to education’. Theissue that most principals found extremely vexing was the manner in which the Right to Education (RTE) Act would be implemented in schools, and the long-term consequences of following this act.



Most principals were extremely worried about three provisions of the act.



Automatic and compulsory promotion of all students up to Std VIII: This, many principals believe, would allow the undeserving to get promoted, thereby becoming a stumbling block to the learning process for both the brighter students in the next class and to the teacher trying to teach the class. Some education administrators openly stated that they had advised their teachers not to detain any students in Std VIII and Std IX as well, because no school would have the courage to detain some 30-50% of the students at the Std VIII examination.



“Why should we, when we could have weeded out such students more gently in stages from Std I to Std V?” said one principal. Another quipped, “It is time the RTE Act was amended to allow for all students to be promoted automatically to Std X.” In fact, no state government would have the political will to detain more than 50% of the students at the SSC examinations either. The result: more sub-standard students clearing the SSC examination.



Compulsory admission of any student to a class appropriate to his age and not to his academic capabilities: Thus a student, 10 years old, would have to be admitted in Std V, though he may not have studied in any school till then. The act provides for intensive skill upgradation for nine months to help bring the student up to that level. “If nine months can teach all that was taught in five years, why have any schools with Std I to V?” was one pointed query.



“And what does one do if a student is not interested in studies, and creates trouble in a class, not allowing other students to study?” was another query. The RTE Act does not allow punishment, expulsion, or detention. “What about the right of any good student to study in peace and an atmosphere suitable for academic pursuit?” was a third query.



Reservation of 25% seats for poor children: All principals were unanimous in lauding the intention but faulting the process. “It will be better if good schools are allowed to run municipal schools than to let students who cannot cope with social norms facing both a social and a psychological challenge at a young age,” was a moot suggestion.



“The state has failed in managing education in municipal schools and government-aided schools. This is evident from the way enrolment in municipal schools has fallen from 6 lakh a few years ago to just around 3.5 lakh today. The RTE’s reservation policy will cause this number to fall further because nobody wants to go to a municipal school if the student can get the choice to go to a private school without paying the fees,” one anguished complaint said. The state will destroy even good educational institutions this way. “Many parents will pay bribes to education inspectors to get their children into private schools,” was another observation.



Mullick promised to put all these issues up before the government. He also stated that many of these issues were already part of petitions that were being heard by the courts. The final shape of the RTE could still change.



But he reiterated the state government’s commitment to education. “The state spends around `13,000 per child on an average each year on education. In Mumbai, the municipal corporation spends around `25,000 per child per annum.



“As far as filling in the 25% of reserved seats in private schools [even in private and minority educational institutions], it would be the state which would direct specific students to each school. The manner in which the state would pay the fees of such students to the school has yet to be decided.”



Some other observations made by Mullick were:



The total annual spending of the government on education for Class I to XII is Rs28,000 crore.Around five years ago it was Rs19,000 crore.

Currently, the state has 1.2 lakh schools, which have 82,53,837 primary students and 39,73,878 upper primary students on their rolls.But these numbers could be an exaggeration, because, as a recent survey in Nanded found, 20-25% of the students were found to be bogus entries.

The state will have to open many more schools before 2013 because each student from Std I to V will have to go to a school within a 1km radius. Each student from Std VI-VII would have to go to a school within a 3km radius. If there are no schools within this radius, new schools would have to be opened.

Moreover, for 15 students in a tribal region, there must be a school. For 20 children in a rural area, a school is required. In urban areas the minimum requirement for starting a school is 25 students. For children who are backward, a nine-month rigorous training programme is envisaged, which, the lawmakers believe, would help the student to come up to the level of other students. Most principals laughed at this idea, because if it were possible to teach five years of a syllabus to an illiterate 11-year-old in Std VI, why have the first five years of schooling at all?

Because of the new student-teacher ratio, many more teachers will have to be employed.

Accountability will have to be brought in through formative, summative, round-the-clock testing in such a manner that the results are visible to the teacher, to the district, and to the state headquarters. All results will have to be computerised. The manner in which this is to be done is being studied at various government levels.



“DEd courses have become sub-standard. Against an annual requirement of 12,000 new teachers, DEd institutes churn out 100,000. Most teachers who get these certificates are sub-standard. That is why the government has introduced a CET for appointment of teachers to zilla parishad schools, but not for private government-aided schools where much of the corruption of teachers takes place.”