BACKGROUND.
It was
Saturday afternoon; the world seemed to be on vacation but me, as I was
busy serving guests at a lunch party at my masters' residence. Chatting
and laughing was loud enough to be heard in every nook and corner of the
house. But those were of least concern to me, because I had to respond
to every single call for any requirement at the very word of the guests
or the master in particular. It was 2009, and I was just seven, wearing a
sweater and a half pant, watching a bunch of people boasting about the
achievements of their wards and trying to prove ones child better than
the other. When suddenly, an old man read from a magazine that the
government was to pass a new act namely, Right to Education Act. But to
me those routine talks about the household work made more sense than
this new coming up topic, because neither I could read or understand
there high-level conversation, which had diverted there talks from their
children, on top of that I didn't even understand, what the word
'right' meant. That elderly fellow said something like...
History of the Act:
The
Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2003 was the first attempt of the
Central government to draft a comprehensive legislation on education
after the 86th Constitutional Amendment that made education a
fundamental right. The Bill was an excellent example of bureaucratic
empowerment, creating up to 6 levels of various authorities to ensure
the provision of free and compulsory education. Furthermore, the
reservation of up to 25% of the private school seats for the
economically backward students to be selected by these authorities
ensured that the Bill was a throwback to the old licence-permit-raj
regime. Following widespread criticism, the Bill was discarded.
The
Right to Education Bill 2005 is the second attempt by the Central
government to set the education system right. Some of the important
provisions of the Bill:
• Promises free and compulsory education
of equitable quality up to the elementary level to all children in the
age group of 6 to 14.
• Mandates unaided private schools to reserve up to 25 percent of
the seats for students from weaker sections. The schools will be
reimbursed by the lower of the actual school fee or per student
expenditure in the government school. The aided schools will reserve "at
least such proportion of their admitted children as its annual
recurring aid bears to its annual recurring expenses subject to a
minimum of 25 per cent."
• Requires all remaining students to be accommodated by opening new
government schools and within three years of the passage all students to
have a school to go within their own neighbourhood.
• Forms School Management Committees (SMCs) comprising parents and
teachers for state schools and aided schools. The SMCs will own the
assets of the school, manage the accounts, and pay salaries.
• Establishes a National Commission for Elementary Education to
monitor the implementation of the Bill, State Regulatory Authorities to
address grievances under the Bill, and several 'competent authorities,'
'local authorities,' and 'empowered authorities' to perform a vast
number of regulatory functions and meet out punishment to defaulters.
• Assigns all state school teachers to particular schools from which
they will never be transferred-creates a school-based teacher cadre.
The
finance committee and planning commission rejected the Bill citing the
lack of funds and a Model bill was sent to states for the making
necessary arrangements.
INTRODUCTION
As is evident, even
after 60 years, universal elementary education remains a distant dream.
Despite high enrolment rates of approximately 95% as per the Annual
Status of Education Report (ASER 2009), 52.8% of children studying in
5th grade lack the reading skills expected at 2nd grade. Free and
compulsory elementary education was made a fundamental right under
Article 21 of the Constitution in December 2002, by the 86th Amendment.
In translating this into action, the `Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Bill' was drafted in 2005. This was revised and
became an Act in August 2009, but was not notified for roughly 7 months.
The
reasons for delay in notification can be mostly attributed to
unresolved financial negotiations between the National University of
Education Planning and Administration, NUEPA, which has been responsible
for estimating RTE funds and the Planning Commission and Ministry of
Human Resource and Development (MHRD). From an estimate of an additional
Rs.3.2 trillion to Rs.4.4 trillion for the implementation of RTE Draft
Bill 2005 over 6 years (Central Advisory Board of Education, CABE) the
figure finally set by NUEPA now stands at a much reduced Rs.1.7 trillion
over the coming 5 years. For a frame of reference, Rs.1 trillion is
1.8% of one year's GDP.
Most education experts agree that this
amount will be insufficient. Since education falls under the concurrent
list of the Constitution, financial negotiations were also undertaken
between Central and State authorities to agree on sharing of expenses.
This has been agreed at 35:65 between States and Centre, though state
governments continue to argue that their share should be lower.
KEY FEATURES OF THE ACT INCLUDE:
1.
Every child from 6 to 14 years of age has a right to free and
compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of
elementary education.
2. Private schools must take in a quarter of their class strength
from `weaker sections and disadvantaged groups', sponsored by the
government.
3. All schools except private unaided schools are to be managed by
School Management Committees with 75 per cent parents and guardians as
members.
4. All schools except government schools are required to be
recognized by meeting specified norms and standards within 3 years to
avoid closure.
On the basis of this Act, the government has framed
subordinate legislation called model rules as guidelines to states for
the implementation of the Act.
The family, I had been working for,
(walia family) had always been caring for me, with occasional slaps and
abuses, to which I had become accustomed to and accepted them as a part
and parcel of my monthly income of 700 Rs along with square meals and
the discarded cloths of the children to the master. But then that was my
life......bhaiya and didi (son and daughter to the master) were both
elder to me by 4 or 5 years respectively and during my free time often
played along with me, but again I was reminded of my being a servant
whenever I forgot that...they had thought me to read and write my name
in Hindi, which I always kept scribbling at the corners of the walls
which resulted in a colour change of my cheeks to red from white,
whenever caught. That Act being the burning topic of those days always
managed to occupy some space at the front page of every news paper,
which further became a topic of early morning drawing room discussion
for the family as it was that day and just like every normal citizen he
also started which his speech, with the critique of right to education
act and its loop holes....
LOOPHOLES IN THE ACT
The Act is
excessively input-focused rather than outcomes-oriented. Even though
better school facilities, books, uniforms and better qualified teachers
are important, their significance in the Act has been overestimated in
the light of inefficient, corrupt and unaccountable institutions of
education provision. Then the Act unfairly penalises private
unrecognised schools for their payment of market wages for teachers
rather than elevated civil service wages. It also penalises private
schools for lacking the infrastructural facilities defined under a
Schedule under the Act. These schools, which are extremely cost
efficient, operate mostly in rural areas or urban slums, and provide
essential educational services to the poor. Independent studies by Geeta
Kingdon, James Tooley and ASER 2009 suggest that these schools provide
similar if not better teaching services when compared to government
schools, while spending a much smaller amount. However, the Act requires
government action to shut down these schools over the coming three
years. A better alternative would have been to find mechanisms through
which public resources could have been infused into these schools. The
exemption from these same recognition requirements for government
schools is the case of double standards -- with the public sector being
exempted from the same `requirements'. By the Act, SMCs (school
management committees) are to comprise of mostly parents, and are to be
responsible for planning and managing the operations of government and
aided schools. SMCs will help increase the accountability of government
schools, but SMCs for government schools need to be given greater powers
over evaluation of teacher competencies and students learning
assessment. Members of SMCs are required to volunteer their time and
effort. This is an onerous burden for the poor. Payment of some
compensation to members of SMCs could help increase the time and focus
upon these. Turning to private but `aided' schools, the new role of SMCs
for private `aided' schools will lead to a breakdown of the existing
management structures. Teachers are the cornerstone of good quality
education and need to be paid market-driven compensation. But the
government has gone too far by requiring high teacher salaries averaging
close to Rs.20,000 per month. These wages are clearly out of line, when
compared with the market wage of a teacher, for most schools in most
locations in the country. A better mechanism would have involved schools
being allowed to design their own teacher salary packages and having
autonomy to manage teachers. A major problem in India is the lack of
incentive faced by teachers either in terms of carrot or stick. In the
RTE Act, proper disciplinary channels for teachers have not been
defined. Such disciplinary action is a must given that an average of 25
percent teachers are absent from schools at any given point and almost
half of those who are present are not engaged in teaching activity.
School Management Committees need to be given this power to allow speedy
disciplinary action at the local level. Performance based pay scales
need to be considered as a way to improve teaching.
The Act and
the Rules require all private schools (whether aided or not) to reserve
at least 25% of their seats for economically weaker and socially
disadvantaged sections in the entry level class. These students will not
pay tuition fees. Private schools will receive reimbursements from the
government calculated on the basis of per-child expenditure in
government schools. Greater clarity for successful implementation is
needed on:
• How will 'weaker and disadvantaged sections' be defined and verified?
• How will the government select these students for entry level class?
• Would the admission lottery be conducted by neighbourhood or by
entire village/town/city? How would the supply-demand gaps in each
neighbourhood be addressed?
• What will be the mechanism for reimbursement to private schools?
• How will the government monitor the whole process? What type of
external vigilance/social audit would be allowed/encouraged on the
process?
• What would happen if some of these students need to change school in higher classes?
Moreover,
the method for calculation of per-child reimbursement expenditure
(which is to exclude capital cost estimates) will yield an inadequate
resource flow to private schools. It will be tantamount to a tax on
private schools. Private schools will end up charging more to the 75% of
students - who are paying tuition's - to make space for the 25% of
students they are forced to take. This will drive up tuition fees for
private schools (while government schools continue to be taxpayer funded
and essentially free).
Reimbursement calculations should include capital as well recurring costs incurred by the government.
By
dictating the terms of payment, the government has reserved the right
to fix its own price, which makes private unaided schools resent this
imposition of a flat price. A graded system for reimbursement would work
better, where schools are grouped -- based on infrastructure, academic
outcomes and other quality indicators -- into different categories,
which would then determine their reimbursement.
Quality of Education
The
quality of education provided by the government system remains in
question. While it remains the largest provider of elementary education
in the country forming 80% of all recognized schools, it suffers from
shortages of teachers, infrastructural gaps and several habitations
continue to lack schools altogether. There are also frequent allegations
of government schools being riddled with absenteeism and mismanagement
and appointments are based on political convenience. Despite the allure
of free lunch-food in the government schools, which has basically turned
the schools into a "dhaba" and school teachers to "chefs", many parents
send their children to private schools. Average schoolteacher salaries
in private rural schools in some States (about Rs. 4,000 per month) are
considerably lower than that in government schools. As a result,
proponents of low cost private schools, critiqued government schools as
being poor value for money.
Children attending the private schools
are seen to be at an advantage, thus discriminating against the weakest
sections, who are forced to go to government schools. Furthermore, the
system has been criticized as catering to the rural elites who are able
to afford school fees in a country where large number of families live
in absolute poverty. The act has been criticized as discriminatory for
not addressing these issues. Well-known educationist Anil Sadagopal said
of the hurriedly-drafted act:
"It is a fraud on our children. It
gives neither free education nor compulsory education. In fact, it only
legitimizes the present multi-layered, inferior quality school education
system where discrimination shall continue to prevail."
For me
this new topic was like Ramayana being recited in the house, although
Ramayana was still Hindi, but this was complete alien...it was Wednesday
afternoon and the family members were all taking rest when I decided to
run away from that house, and then actually did...but when was back
home I was scolded brutally by my father who said 'here comes one more,
person with his mouth wide open, good for nothing creature'. After few
days, I was as well enrolled in local village school, which served lunch
to every student who attended the school. But the food wasn't easy here
too, every pupil was made to cook food and wash dishes, the left out
time was utilized in fulfilling the desires of the school teacher. I did
everything in the school but study. But my sister was not as lucky as
me, although for sake of attending school, she was only enrolled in
there but the reality was that she hardly attended any classes due to
engagement in the household work, as that was more important and
education for marriage than that what was written the school books. The
only day we had a feast was when inspection was on the calendar. I did
wanted to study but my pockets didn't allow me, I always pondered but
couldn't make out what was wrong with my school when compared to those
big ones in the cities but the answers were nowhere for me......
THINGS WHICH CAN BE DONE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT.
The
RTE Act has been passed; the Model Rules have been released; financial
closure appears in hand. Does this mean the policy process is now
impervious to change? Even today, much can be achieved through a
sustained engagement with this problem.
Drafting of State Rules
Even
though state rules are likely to be on the same lines as the model
rules, these rules are still to be drafted by state level authorities
keeping in mind contextual requirements. Advocacy on the flaws of the
Central arrangements, and partnerships with state education departments,
could yield improvements in at least some States. Examples of critical
changes which state governments should consider are: giving SMCs greater
disciplinary power over teachers and responsibility of students
learning assessment, greater autonomy for schools to decide teacher
salaries and increased clarity in the implementation strategy for 25%
reservations. If even a few States are able to break away from the flaws
of the Central arrangements, this would yield demonstration effects of
the benefits from better policies.
Assisting private unrecognized schools
Since
unrecognized schools could face closure in view of prescribed
recognition standards within three years, we could find ways to support
such schools to improve their facilities by resource support and
providing linkages with financial institutions. Moreover, by instituting
proper rating mechanisms wherein schools can be rated on the basis of
infrastructure, learning achievements and other quality indicators,
constructive competition can ensue.
Ensure proper implementation
Despite
the flaws in the RTE Act, it is equally important for us to
simultaneously ensure its proper implementation. Besides bringing about
design changes, we as responsible civil society members need to make the
government accountable through social audits, filing right to
information applications and demanding our children's right to quality
elementary education. Moreover, it is likely that once the Act is
notified, a number of different groups affected by this Act will
challenge it in court. It is, therefore, critically important for us to
follow such cases and where feasible provide support which addresses
their concerns without jeopardizing the implementation of the Act.
Awareness
Most
well-meaning legislation's fail to make significant changes without
proper awareness and grassroot pressure. Schools need to be made aware
of provisions of the 25% reservations, the role of SMCs and the
requirements under the Schedule. This can be undertaken through mass
awareness programs as well as ensuring proper understanding by
stakeholders responsible for its implementation.
Ecosystem creation for greater private involvement
Finally,
along with ensuring implementation of the RTE Act which stipulates
focused reforms in government schools and regulation for private
schools, we need to broaden our vision so as to create an ecosystem
conducive to spontaneous private involvement. The current licensing and
regulatory restrictions in the education sector discourage
well-intentioned 'entrepreneurs' from opening more schools. Starting a
school in Delhi, for instance, is a mind-numbing, expensive and
time-consuming task which requires clearances from four different
departments totaling more than 30 licenses. The need for deregulation is
obvious.
Today, I am 15 in age, out of school and again away from
home, working only to earn hand to mouth, to boast that am literate I
have gained my elementary education but the fact is, I only know how to
write my name in Hindi along with few more things and that's not because
of the school but I owe that to Mr walias' children. And today, the
biggest question for me is, why should anyone get enrolled in a school
to gain elementary education, when that education is doing no good to
him in the future? After 14 I had to leave the school, in spite of me
being still in standard four, I couldn't support my studies further so
ultimately all my efforts went in vain, leaving me all to myself, just
to ponder what should I do????
CONCLUSION:
The Act has
failed in identifying what actually ails our education system and so not
surprisingly it offers solutions that are either redundant or
counter-productive. Its unrelenting faith in the bureaucracy and its
seething animosity towards private initiatives in education reflect a
bygone era. However well-intentioned the government may be, the central
planning approach cannot serve the future needs of India. It has failed
in economics and it cannot do any better in education. The promises made
in the Bill then amount to political grandstanding.
The
fulfillment of the constitutional obligation does not necessarily
require the state to build and manage schools. It can discharge its
obligation successfully by restricting its role to the provision of
financial resources to those who cannot afford and enabling all parents
to make informed choices. The education system should be designed in
such a manner that there is competition and choice. The schools should
compete with each other to attract students and the students should in
turn have the freedom to choose their school. This would ensure the best
allocation of scarce resources and an improving quality of education.
One
way for the government to finance education that would guarantee access
to school and would create right incentives for improving quality is to
fund government schools on the basis of number students in the school.
Instead of a lump sum grant, the government fixes a per student charge,
which multiplied with the number of students, determines the grant that a
school would receive. The state can also provide financial support to
students in the form of a voucher that can be redeemed only at
educational institutions to cover the expenses of education. With this
education voucher, the student would be in a position to choose from
amongst the various public and private schools.
This would ensure
competition amongst schools and thus good quality education.
Furthermore, the financial resources of the state would be put to more
effective use by targeting them towards the poor only and by optimally
utilizing the management skills of the private sector. There is no doubt
that privately managed institutions have made a tremendous contribution
to the cause of education, and in the last decade particularly the
unrecognised private schools for the poor. It would be a tremendous loss
of social capital if these schools were forced to close down. If the
government opens a new school and runs well, there would be no reason
for parents to send their children to a fee-charging, unrecognised
school.
They would go out of business automatically. One more
reason not to outlaw these schools with the passage of the Act is the
chaos and harm it would create since they will have to close down well
before the government will be able to open new schools across the
country. In its zeal to fulfill its constitutional mandate, the
government would achieve the opposite.
