Right To Education:

Can It Educate the Future of India?

GRK Murty
“What, the countrymen of Tagore to be illiterate! Incredible!”—
thus exclaimed in wonder a Norwegian gentleman who had read
the translations, in his mother tongue, of all the works of
Rabindranath Tagore, when C Y Chintamani, who traveled with
him from Paris to Versailles, said to him, “Illiteracy was the
badge of the tribe in our country.”

Chintamani who made that statement was the Chief Editor of

The Leader and had delivered a series of lectures at Andhra
University, at the invitation of its Vice-Chancellor S
Radhakrishnan, in 1935. Of course, what matters most now is: Is
the situation any different now, even after more than 60 years
of independence?

At least, looking at the background of the 86th amendment to

the Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) that came into effect
from April 1, 2010, no one can deny the fact that large sections
of two generations of free India have turned adults without any
formal schooling.

A survey conducted by National Institute of Educational Planning

and Administration (NIEPA) makes certain disturbing revelations:
42,000 schools that are run by the government in the country
have no buildings; 26% of the schools are run in rented buildings;
10% of the schools, i.e., more than 100,000 schools, are run in
single-room structures. Among them, 90% are located in rural
India. About 81,000 schools do not have even blackboards.
About the other essentials, such as drinking water, sanitary
facilities, tables and benches, the less said the better.

Besides, we also witness wide gaps in terms of resources,

infrastructural facilities, and efficiency levels between the
schools run by private agencies and the government. And,
ironically, within the government-run schools, there exists a
huge difference between Kendriya Vidyalayas and schools run by
municipalities and by panchayats in villages. Which means,
nothing much has changed on the educational front: we
continue to have Tagores, Arundhati Roys, Adigas,
Ramakrishnans and Nilekanis on the one side, and a large tribe
with the badge of illiteracy around their neck on the other side.

It is against this backdrop that the RTE Act has assumed greater
significance—it offers a framework for making quality education
available to children freely, at least for eight years, across the
nation. It aims at providing the requisite infrastructure, along
with sufficient number of trained teachers, of course, all duly
funded by the government. One estimate puts the funds
required to implement the RTE Act in the next five years at Rs
1,71,000 cr, which means an annual expenditure of Rs 34,000 cr.
The act envisages that the funding for the implementation of its
provisions is to be shared by the central and state governments
at the ratio of 55:45.

Now, the real challenge is: Can states match the center in
providing funds? If not, it would be a great shame for the
country that is gloating about its emerging global power status.
There is thus no escape from this all-inclusive duty of educating
the nation. The significance of this duty aptly reflected in what
the Prime Minister said in his address to the nation as the act
came into force on April 1: “I am what I am today because of
education.” However, unless the state governments submit
themselves to this national duty and the elite monitor their
performance rigorously, the act might just remain another
guarantee on paper.

Act or no act, educating every child of India becomes possible

only when parents perceive the importance of education for
their wards, particularly, to live in tomorrow’s world. Simply
put, it is as much the duty of parents as that of the government.
Despite education being free, poor parents, no doubt, have to
put up with many sacrifices—losses in terms of child labor
wages, loss of assistance for household chores, and so on.
Getting every child aged below 14 to school—particularly the
girl-child—thus calls for far more than what the act offers. The
government and social organizations have to do a lot of
groundwork for making the act operable. It is a duty cast on the
nation. Shouldn’t we be held responsible for its success?