Right to Education rules silent on who is less privileged

Updated on: Monday, April 30, 2012

The education department no tified the rules for imple mentation of Right to Edu cation (RTE) on Saturday af ter lingering for long, but the loopholes are many. With barely a month left for schools to reopen, it's chaos everywhere. And the notification has just added to the confusion.

If we are hoping that RTE will enable access to quality education for all children, irrespective of their class, then we must think again. For the rulebook is silent on who is an underprivileged child what are the criteria to decide econo mically weaker sections (EWS) and what is the cut off income for EWS.

In the absence of clear-cut definitions, school heads and activists feel that there could be misuse of the crucial clause earmarking 25% seats in schools for children from the poorer classes.

Nigar Sulthana principal, Cambridge Public School, said,  I was disappointed after going through the notification. There has been no clarification on any of the clauses mentioned in the act. Moreover, the very first step to get started with the act - EWS - hasn't been defined. We are still in the dark over how the act should be implemented.''

Experts and school heads feel that even if the term is defined in coming days, it will be difficult to assess the criteria that will put the child in EWS sec tion. "Even now we have parents who play foul when it comes to their income The mentioned income is generally much less than what they earn. In such a scenario, the government will have to ensure a fool-proof plan to filter out those who fake poverty," said Nigar.

Schools say that they are gearing up for fake certificates to pour in. MA Khan, principal of KK High School said that the school authorities are al ready stumbling upon fake caste and income certificates.

"Once the RTE comes into being such practices will only dilute the quo ta for EWS and the disadvantaged. More over, we have little confidence in this government. After repeated failures in ensuring quality education in its own schools, the government is now only giv ing opportunities to the revenue au thority to mint money by generating fake income certificates,'' said Khan.

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