A talk show was organized in the assembly to bring the awareness regarding the “Right to Education Act”. Students come up with different viewpoints. The complied views from different classes/students are as follow :

The Right To Education Act 2009 was one of the most important act passed by the government as it encourages free and compulsory education to all the children of India  in the 6 to 14 years of the age group. This is a very important step taken by the government to increase the number of literate people in our country. The Right to Education has brought in reform in the field of education. It enables the children who have been denied education, to get back to schooling they are entitled to.

Class VI and VII
 

The Act of Right to Education 2009 give a student the following benefits:
 

?  Access to Education irrespective of class, creed, gender or economic status

?  No pressure to perform at school as no formal Assessment or Evaluation at the school

?  No time constraint as can complete the studies in more time than earlier. Flexibility in terms of time frame

?  Teachers can provide extra support in terms of special needs of the child

?  Have access to the best of facilities

?  If for some reason the child has dropped off from school in the past, he can now continue his studies and that too at the level of age. For example he may have dropped his schooling in grade 2 but if now he is 11 years old he will go in grade 5

?  Student to teacher ratio will be lower, hence teacher will be able to give more attention

?  More freedom at class level and less challenges to meet

Class-VIII
 

Education is a must and ongoing process for 6 to 14 years children. Economically disadvantaged children should not be forced to give board exam before elementary education.  A child of 6 years or above should be admitted in a class according to her/his age.
 

A school can’t dismiss a child if he/she doesn’t have a birth certificate. Student-Teacher ratio should be maintained properly according to norms and rules. Infrastructure and facilities should be good in a school so that a child can concentrate more in studies and make optimum use of the facilities available in a school.
 

There is one more clause for admitting economically disadvantaged children in private schools and percentage should be 25 in class I. It is good for these children.

The above mentioned measures should be taken into consideration so that each child in India can get free and compulsory education.
 

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The right to education is a universal entitlement to education, a right that is recognized as a human right.  According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights the right to education includes the right to free, compulsory primary education for all.
 

This right will provide opportunity to all children to study and be literate and thus the literacy rate in India will improve. However, the infrastructure for implementing this act has been not created so far. We need thousands of schools, hundreds of teachers, books and study material for which no facilities are available. Children from poor families help the parents to generate some income by doing odd jobs. It is not clear to how these families will be able to send their children to school by forgoing their source of income. The government has to create the infrastructure and also entice poor families to send their children to schools. Only then, this Right to Education can be meaningfully and positively implemented. For this, thousand and crore of rupees are required and government will have to mobilize all resources to provide these funds.
 

TANYA GUPTA

IX-A
 

Class-X

We have learnt that the Constitution of India is a living document- dynamic and flexible. We personally feel that in the face of things- more than anything else, the constitution of India in recent years has been further adorned with accessories only to be ‘showcased’ and far from the reality of life and the progress of the nation.
 

Right to Education may be well meaning and edifying but certainly it is impractical. The ethos, spirit of any ‘Right’ has to be first viewed from the lens of reality, achievement and its practicality level. We do not deny the Right of every child from 6-14 years to get elementary education, but the spirit of the Right is lost in the line of least resistance often adopted by the Executive and Bureacracy. Definitely the Judiciary should not continue to remain indifferent. All the three organs of the Government should rise from the level of clerical documentation and the so called edifying farce of redeeming the Indian society. Society cannot be redeemed by mere ‘Words’/ Rights.
 

Instead of putting the onus on Private schools for ensuring 25% reservation of seats for the economically disadvantaged children from class I (wef 2011), the initators of the Right to Education should have ensured the feasibility, psychological repercussions, administrative repercussion of the Act. The government should have instead concentrated on deploying hundreds of Mobile Vans to go to the slums of India. The Mobile Vans should be monitored by NGO’s without making any concessions on the Transparency, Accountability and Legitimacy in their area of work.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, commonly known as the Right to Education (RTE) Act, came into effect in India from April 1, 2010. This act seeks to impart free and compulsory education to all between the ages 6 to 14 years i.e. providing free and compulsory elementary education.
 

This act is a stepping stone in the history of education in India. Many changes are revolutionary, and if they are implemented properly, they will vastly improve the system of imparting education in the country.
 

Section16 of the RTE Act states that no child shall be detained in any class till he/she completes his/her elementary education. But detaining acts as a critical feedback mechanism and does not burden the child in higher classes and cause greater harm then although it should not be used as a tool of fear for children. While the ban on private tuitions is worthy of appreciations, there should also be a ban on referring students for private tuitions. Also, to reduce the dropout rates after fourteen years of age, some incentives like scholarships can be introduced so that the students continue schooling.

All the measures need to be implemented properly to improve the education system in India. Also, suggestions, changes to already existing measures and new ideas from time to time must be implemented to improve the RTE Act.
 

 Nimisha Gupta

 XI-F

Right to Education: A Critical Analysis

The Right to Education act came into force on April 1, 2010. Now, we are a year into it, and have had ample time to see how the act has panned out in reality.
 

The RTE which promises free and compulsory education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14 years shows mixed results. For instance, one of the clauses of the Act states how each private school should have 25% seats reserved for children from low socio-economic backgrounds. Further the government imposes how the schools while focusing on this 25% category shouldn’t interview the students or their parents, in order to make the whole process more egalitarian. The public school proposal though well intended, does seem to invoke some contradictions. First such students are not able to handle the atmosphere associated with a private school. Surveys and studies have shown most of such children enrolled possess very poor arithmetic and language skills. The classroom atmosphere is also such that free student teacher interaction hardly takes place. Secondly, with so many restrictions, private schools also seem to a bit agitated, after all they are private entities and are therefore, supposed to have complete autonomy.
 

Moving on we have public schools. These are a severe concern, for about 90% of primary education is public school based. However with lack of proper infrastructure and teaching resources, even children willing to study are not allowed to do so causing a drop out rate which is about 50% in boys and girls alike.
 

There have been few minor tweaks that show promise. For instance the government paying for children’s fees in private schools has shown positive results (in experiments conducted in Delhi). Besides this Corporate aid (under Corporate Social Responsibility) has also been a welcomed addition, especially in states like Rajasthan. These should be implemented on a larger scale in the future.

Utkarsh Chawla

XI-A

Right to Education Act (2009)

Right to Education Act was passed by the Indian Parliament in 2009 ensuring the provision of free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 years. Regardless to say, it is one gigantic leap forward towards a literate and developed India but is it really feasible?
 

After almost a year of seeing the Act take effect, we ourselves can judge the viability of the Right to Education. Schools all over the country have been burdened financially to provide free education to any eager students, apart from any other inclusive education programmes that they undertake. Does this seem fair to the other students who pay their fee dutifully in order to receive the education they deserve? Moreover, students admitted under RTE will be at least 6 years of age which means they will have missed out on the ‘first five years’ of Montessori schooling that educationists deem fundamental to a successful education. It will naturally be harder to adapt with the new surroundings and academic levels, not to forget the sudden pressure and expectations. One clause of the RTE states that proof of age is essential to admission for elementary education but if a family cannot afford to send their child to school, can we assume that their legal documents pertaining to the child will be dependable? Such are the problems that hide behind the glory of the RTE.
 

RTE may seem illusory but in the future years, with joint efforts it will surely prove to be an element of progress.
 

Riya Bahl

XI-D