JOINING

HANDS IN THE
INTEREST OF
CHILDREN
The 86th constitutional amendment (2002), that made
elementary education a fundamental right & the RTE Act
(2009) which describes the modalities of the provision, give us
the tools to provide quality education to all our children
Elementary education consists of eight
years of education.
 Free and compulsory
education for all children
until they complete the age
of14 years was one
of the Directive Principles of
State Policy intended
to be implemented within 10
years of the commencement
of the Indian Constitution.
 Not being justiciable, this
directive failed to prod the
Indian state into any kind of
concrete action.
 The 86th constitutional
amendment (2002), has
made elementary education
a fundamental right for the
children between the age
group- 6 to 14.
 After 60 years, with the
Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education
Act (2009), the entitlement
to education has become
enforceable. It offers a
framework for ensuring
quality education.
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 The Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act
 Passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August
2009. It describes the modalities of the
provision of free and compulsory education for
children between 6 and 14 in India under Article
21A of the Indian Constitution.
 India became one of the few countries to make
education a fundamental right of every child
when the act came into force on April 1, 2010.

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RTE Act –What does it specify?
 The Act makes education a fundamental right
of every child between the ages of 6 to 14
and specifies the minimum norms in
government schools.
 It specifies reservation of 25% seats in private
schools for children from poor families. It
prohibits the practice of unrecognized
schools, and makes provisions to avoid
donation or capitation fee and an interview of
the child or parent for the admission.
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RTE Act –What does it offer?
It offers a framework
 for ensuring quality education,
 for creating infrastructure,
 for making available a sufficient number
of trained teachers, and
 for extending government funding to
private schools.
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National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights
 The act also provides that, no child shall be held
back, expelled, or required to pass a board
examination until completion of elementary
education.
 Provision for special training of school drop-outs to
bring them at-par with the students of the same age.
 Right to Education of Person with Disabilities till 18
years of age has been made a Fundamental Right.
 The act provides for establishment of the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights and State
Commissions for supervising of proper
implementation of the act, looking after the
complaints and protection of Child Rights.

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RTE – 2009: fund provision
 Other provisions regarding improvement of school
infrastructure, teacher-student ratio and faculty have
also been provided in the act.
 A committee set up to study the funds requirement
and funding estimated that Rs 1.71 lakh crore would
be required in the next five years for implementing
the Act.
 The government agreed to sharing of funds in the
ratio of 65 to 35 between the Centre and the states
for implementing the law, with a ratio of 90 to 10 for
the north-eastern states.

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RTE – 2009: fund provision
 The central and State governments are
to share the financial requirement for
implementing the Act in the ratio of 55:45,
and the Finance Commission has given
Rs.25,000 crore to the States.
 An outlay of Rs.15,000 crore was approved
for 2010-11 by the central government,

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Struggle for universalizing
elementary education: Right or Duty?

 But it won't be enough to approach free and

compulsory education up to the age of l4 as
an entitlement, especially for the millions of
children who are left out in the cold.
 Accessing this right meaningfully and in full
measure will require, aside from the
investment of huge resources, financial and
human, a lot of work to be done on the
ground. Key to this is seeing free and
compulsory education for children not just as
a right but as a duty.
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Struggle for universalizing
elementary education
 Everybody acknowledges the value of
education in the overall development of the
children.
 Administrators
 Educationists
 Development professionals
 Economists
 Parents

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Administrators focus on

 Enrolment

 Availability of schools within walking

distance

 Provisioning for infrastructure

 Deployment of teachers.

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Educationists: What is Learnt, how is
it presented?

are concerned about

 Whether or how children learn, and the

 Burden of syllabi, which is passed on to

 Tuition centres or Parents

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• Development professionals discuss
 The impact of years of schooling, for example on
 the age of marriage and
 family size.
 ‘Development’ is a blessing sustained by the
beneficial environment: “Trees give fruits to assist
others. Rivers flow to help others. Cows produce milk
to feed others. In the same way, our own human
body & mind should also be employed for the
assistance of others”: Administrators, Educationists,
Economists, Development professionals and Parents,
please note.
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Economists
 talk about the economic returns on
Investment in education; bankers too.
 Our economist PM says ‘ An education that
enables them to acquire the skills,
knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to
become responsible and active citizens of
India’ is our commitment.

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Parents
have expectations from the education system
 that it should equip their children for gainful
employment, and
 economic well being.
 उद्यमे न हि हिद्धयन्ति कायाा हि न मनोरथैः ।
न हि िुप्तस्य हििंिस्य प्रहिशन्ति मुखे मृगाैः
 Any work will not get accomplished just merely by
desiring for it's completion. A 'prey' will not by itself
come to the mouth of a sleeping lion. Industrious
work is necessary.

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 Fulfill goals of
universal elementary education
 The enforcement of fundamental
right to education provides us a
unique opportunity to mount a
mission encompassing all the
above discourses to fulfill our goal
of universal elementary education.
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 Implementation of
RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT
provides for all children the benefit of
free and compulsory
 admission,
 attendance and
 completion
of elementary education.

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 In India, since we gained freedom of
self governance,
 Undoubtedly, much progress has
occurred since the last sixty years of our
independence and
 many more children with a diverse
background are accessing school.
 Yet....
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 Dropped out, child labourers

 There are ‘invisible’ children_ children

bonded to work with an employer,
 young boys grazing cattle or working in a
dhabha
 girls working in the fields or as domestic help
or caring for younger siblings, and
 children being subjected to early marriage.
Many of these children are formally enrolled
in a school but have either dropped out or
have never been there.

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Extremely vulnerable ones

 Many others such as migrant and

street children, who live in
extremely vulnerable conditions;
denying them education is against
the universal nature of human
rights.
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 Enrol, attend, learn,
and
Be empowered by education

 Providing universal access itself is no longer

enough; making available school facility is
essential but not sufficient.
 A monitoring mechanism is needed to ensure
that all children attend school regularly and
participate in the learning process.

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 Not attending,
drop-out in a few months?
 Focus must be on the factors that
prevent children from regularly
attending & completing elementary
education. Children from
 weaker sections and
 disadvantaged groups, as also
 girls.
 SOCIAL,CULTURAL,ECONOMIC,
LINGUISTIC AND PEDAGOGIC ISSUES
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Reservation of 25% seats in private
schools for children from poor families
 The school may be  Social, economic,
there but students may cultural, linguistic,
not attend, or drop out pedagogic issues
after a few months.  Denial or violation of the
 Through school & social right to elementary
mapping, many issues education process
need to be addressed requires to be
that prevent a weak overcome with the
child from completing encouragement and
the process of enlightenment of the
education. weak & vulnerable.

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Good education is empowering

 हिद्याहिहिहििीने न हकिं कुलीनेन दे हिनाम् ।

अकुलीनोऽहि हिद्याढ्यो दितरहि िन्द्द्यते ॥
 Of what use is nobility of family if a
person is illiterate? [Akbar - the Great
was an exception]
 A learned man is respected by Gods too
though he does not belong to a noble
family.
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From labour mode to learning mode
 It is the duty of the state, parents and
guardians, and the community to ensure that
all children of school going age are in school.
 A substantial proportion of India's poor
children are; engaged in agricultural labour or
petty trades, housework, and sibling care.
 Ending the morally and socially abhorrent
practice of child labour, not ‘regulating’ it
must be taken up as a non-negotiable
objective.

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Free, compulsory and of high quality

 The right to education is free, compulsory and

it includes good quality education for all.
 A curriculum not only provides good reading
and understanding of text books but also
includes learning through activities,
exploration and discovery.
 Comprehension, competence,
competitiveness and creativity should be
developed, not forgetting compassion.
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 Education Depts of State & Union
Governments have direct responsibility
To provide
 schools,
 infrastructure,
 trained teachers,
 curriculum and
 teaching-learning material, and
 mid-day meal.
A well coordinated mechanism is needed for
inter- sectoral collaboration & convergence.

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On the part of the whole Govts:
 The factors that contribute to the
achievement of the overall goal of
universalizing elementary education as
a fundamental right requires action on
the part of the whole Governments.
A well coordinated mechanism is needed for
inter- sectoral collaboration & convergence.

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Timely & appropriate financial
allocations, redesign school spaces
 The Finance Department to release
funds at all levels.
 The Public Works Dept. to re-conceive
and redesign school spaces from the
pedagogic perspective & Address
issues of including disabled children
through barrier free access.
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Provide Social & Location Mapping of
schools, Water & sanitation facilities
 The Dept. of Science & Technology to
provide geo-spatial technology to
perform at
grass-root survey.
 Provision of access to sufficient safe
drinking water
 Provision and access to adequate
sanitation facilities, specially for girl
child. 30
ROLE OF CIVIL SOCEITY in RTE
 Above all, people’s groups, civil society
organizations & voluntary agencies will play
an crucial role in the implementation of the
RTE Act.
 This will help build a new perspective on
inclusiveness, encompassing gender & social
inclusion, & ensure that these become
integral & crosscutting concerns informing
different aspects like training, curriculum and
classroom transaction.
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ROLE OF CIVIL SOCEITY
 A VIBRANT CIVIL SOCEITY MOVEMENT
CAN ENSURE THAT THE PARENT / CHILD
FROM WEAKER OR DISADVANTAGED
SECTIONS BECOME AWARE OF THE
VALUE OF EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AND PUT IN
SERIOUS EFFORTS ON THEIR PART.
 NGO contribution of knowledge, ideas and
solutions to the challenges are needed.

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Prime Minister:
"We are committed to ensuring that all
children, irrespective of gender and social
category, have access to education. An
education that enables them to acquire the
skills, knowledge, values and attitudes
necessary to become responsible and active
citizens of India

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The 86th constitutional amendment (2002),
And the RTE Act (2009), have given us the
tools to provide quality education to all our
children. It is now imperative that we the
people of India join hands to ensure the
implementation of this law in its true spirit.
The Government is committed to this task
though real change will happen through
collective action.
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 India’s Age: YOUNG INDIA

 0-14 years: 31.1%

(male 190,000,000 / female 172,890,000)

 15-64 years: 63.6%

 India’s Average:
 Total: 25 years
 Male: 25 years

 Female: 26 years

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 Good teacher’s company enables.
 यैः िठहत हलखहत िश्यहत िररिृच्छती िन्तितान्
उिाश्रयहि ।
तस्य हदिाकरहकरिैः नहलनी दलिं इि हिस्ताररता
बुन्तद्धैः ॥
 One who reads, writes, sees, inquires, lives in
the company of learned men, his intellect
expands like
the lotus leaf does
because of the rays of sun.
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