Long wait for right: Right to Education

Updated on: Friday, February 17, 2012

The idea of opening up schools that have for long been elitist in their outlook, to poor students, still remains only on paper even three years after the Union government notified the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

It seems unlikely to take off this year as well as no groundwork has been done to admit the underprivileged students to these schools for the academic year 2012-13, which is now just months away, although Union human resources development minister, Kapil Sibal had in a letter dated January 27 urged the Karnataka government to notify the RTE at the earliest, saying it would be a “historic failure” if the law was not implemented effectively across the country soon.

While the state education department says it is possible to notify the neccessary rules in time for the scheme to begin operating from the coming academic year, minister for primary and secondary education, Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri, is more cautious, claiming it all depends on the Centre.

If it can share the financial burden of implementing the scheme, there’s no reason why it cannot be introduced this year, he says, forgetting that several schools have already completed their admission process for both nursery and class I for 2012-13 although they are not supposed to do so before April.

Academicians point out that if the state had been serious about implementing the Act for the coming academic year, it would not have remained a silent spectator to schools once again defying its diktats and doing as they pleased where admissions were concerned.

“If the government was serious it could have easily implemented the Act three years ago. The argument that it does not have the funds rings hollow as the Centre has already agreed to bear 65 per cent of the expenses,” says Shashiraj H., a volunteer with an NGO working in the field of education, regretting the delay when the future of thousands of poor students is involved. “The issue is raked up only at the time of admissions and then forgotten,” he rues.

Karnataka schools await clarity on rules

Schools that are supposed to open their doors to poor students still seem unclear about what is expected of them as the state government has done little to answer their queries and finalise rules required to implement the Right to Education(RTE) Act.

“In principle all schools are ready to set aside 25 per cent of their seats for poor students, but there is no clarity on the procedure involved and how the fee will be reimbursed,” says the principal of a prestigious city school, pointing out that the government is also silent on the neighbourhood school concept under the scheme, the idea of inclusive education and the curriculum to be followed, among other things.

“While nursery is kept out of RTE, nobody knows how deprived students who join class I directly are supposed to catch up. The government has held no discussion on any of this, which is why we are opposing the implementation of the scheme,” he adds.

Rajiv Shetty, a resource person working with an alternative educational institution, says RTE has worked in Delhi without hassle due to the high awareness level about it among people. “But in our state schools are still unclear about the seat sharing, the admission process and so on. Also when the calendar of events of CBSE, ICSE, and international and residential schools is different from that of state board schools, how can the government insist on admitting its students to them in April or May?” he asks pertinently.

Long wait for right: Right to Education

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