Will RTE fulfil the SSA dream?

Updated on: Monday, April 05, 2010

On April 1, the Right to Education Act came into effect. The fundamental right makes elementary education an entitlement for children in the age group of 6-14 years. The legislation prepares a framework to ensure that children get quality education.

While RTE is being welcomed as a ‘historical’ step, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a flagship programme of the government (launched in 2000-2001) with similar goals to universalise elementary education, fell short of its expectations. The question many are asking is whether RTE will fulfil the SSA dream?

The optimism surrounding RTE is mainly from the fact that while SSA had no legal backing, RTE makes it legally binding for local and state governments. Says Urmila Sarkar, chief, education, Unicef, “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 will be able to realise the dream of SSA because it guarantees by law every child the right to free, quality elementary education by the state with the help of families and communities.”

In fact, SSA is being touted as the main vehicle for implementing RTE. According to an educational consultant working with SSA, the time is right to implement RTE, “since a mechanism already exists at the grassroots-level due to the efforts of SSA, which has built the capacity to implement large-scale educational programmes.” RTE will make SSA more accountable, she adds.

One of the key challenges that SSA faced was a rising dropout rate, which RTE would have to address. According to a report by the joint review mission of SSA last year, nearly 2.7 million children drop out of school every year. The other challenges that SSA faced included assessment of learning outcomes, funding, accountability and active community participation; hurdles that RTE would have to overcome for the legislation to be successfully implemented.

Though euphoric about RTE, educationists working in the field of elementary education expressed concern over the absence of teachers in the country. “Teachers are the weakest link. To fulfil the mission of RTE, we need a change in the school environment. We need dedicated teachers and school leaders (principal/headmaster/headmistress),” says JS Rajput, former chairman of NCTE and former director of NCERT.

Echoing similar views, Ashok Ganguly, former chairman of CBSE and currently additional state project director SSA Uttar Pradesh (UP) and also director, SCERT UP, Lucknow, feels the challenges remain quality and accountability.

“The pupil:teacher ratio has been changed from 40:1 to 30:1 by RTE.

This will have a huge impact on big states like UP. Where are the teachers? Not only do we have to recruit more teachers, but also re-train the ones we have to ensure quality and accountability,” he adds.

Learning from the SSA experience, the government has a huge task ahead to ensure that RTE does not remain a distant dream but becomes a reality for children in India.

Timesofindia

Will RTE fulfil the SSA dream?

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