Draft guidelines put in cold storage

Updated on: Friday, April 15, 2011

The state government is yet to bring out a final draft on the guidelines that it has prepared for the implementation of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Suggestions and objections were sought last November but there has been little progress since then.

The union government had directed all the states to frame the guidelines and Maharashtra was among the foremost to get started.
State school department officials told TOI on Thursday that, “The draft was ready and we have received the suggestions and objections on it from many people. The scrutiny of this feedback has been done and the final draft will be ready soon.”

The 27-page draft has been prepared by the state directorate of primary school education. M R Kadam, director of the department, said, “We submitted the draft to the state government many months ago. They will have to take further action on the implementation part.”

The draft rules consist of eight sections and 25 points detailing the act. Points like duties of the state government or local authority, special training to the authorities in relation to the act, responsibilities of schools and teachers and duties of the school management committee have been included in the draft.

The draft was issued through a government resolution (GR) and signed by Z S Randive, under secretary, school education department in November. It stated that, “The school development plan has to be prepared by the school management committee. It should contain estimates of class-wise enrolment for each year, requirement of teachers and other appointments over a period of three years among other draft rules.”

What it said

* Special training for slow learners based on specially designed learning material

* Where there is no provision for schooling for standard V within a distance of one km, then standards V, VI, VII and VIII shall be attached to the school of the local authority

* The local authority must maintain records of all children till they attain 14 years of age, by carrying out a survey

* Appropriate child system to be developed as a tool to track the children dropping out or remaining absent for more than a month

* Period of admission to be extended till the last date before the end of the first term

* “Every school must have a school management committee which will prepare the school development plan pertaining to its implementation,” Kalmadi added.

Draft guidelines put in cold storage

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