Rural schools performance has suffered since RTE Act implementation

Updated on: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Central Advisory Board of Education decided to set up a panel to ensure implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation of students following complaints from states that performance in rural schools has suffered since Right to Education Act came into force.

The 59th meeting of the board chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal took the decision to constitute the committee to be headed by Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal after the issue was raised by Education Minister of Bihar and supported by Ministers of Chattisgarh, Haryana and Assam.

They said after the implementation of the RTE Act, there is no board examination till class VIII and no detention which has affected performance of students in rural schools.

The implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) of the students, which is mandatory, is done only in CBSE schools, the Ministers said and rued that the students in rural schools do not concentrate on studies due to its improper implementation.

Considering the complaint, the CABE meeting, chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, decided to set up the Committee for assessment and implementation of the CCE in the context of the no detention provision in the RTE ACT.

The CABE committee, which will include education ministers from states, academics and civil society representatives, will submit its report in three months after consulting the state governments and other stake holders.

Appreciating the government's initiative to launch a national mission to improve the quality of teachers and teaching, the CABE meeting also decided to constitute a committee under Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari for developing the framework and process of the mission.

The committee will give special focus on Teacher Educators and developing teachers for inclusive education for children with special needs.

The report of CABE Committee on Information and Communications Technology in School Education and the draft National Policy on ICT were unanimously adopted in the meeting.

In his opening remarks, Sibal said that ICT should be used for the empowerment of the children and teachers.

Suggestions were made on making available digital version of test books on Aakaash Tablet for use by both teachers and students in schools, focus on capacity building of teacher educators and need for states to review their current ICT Policy and strategies in light of the provisions of the National Policy.

The proposed concept of Meta University as a collaborative platform for a network of universities with a view to utilise create and synergise between different programme activities and institutions providing credit based multi disciplinary courses was appreciated by members.

It was also felt in the meeting that the state universities and other state institutions could take similar innovative measures to bring a paradigm shift in higher education.

Members endorsed the initiative to create a Credit Guarantee Fund to ensure better flow of credit to deserving students.

Rural schools performance has suffered since RTE Act implementation

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