The ‘Free and Compulsory Right to Education” bill was passed by both the houses in the Parliament in the year 2009. This has come into effect since 1 April, 2010.
This Act is being considered as a revolution in the field of education. Provisions under this Act include the following:
1. It contains details of minimum facilities any school should provide. It says that every school must have at least 2 teachers. Teacher pupil ratio must be 1:30 per school.
2. A School Management Committee (SMC) must be appointed for every primary/upper primary school. 75% members in this committee should be the parents/guardians and females should not be less than 50% of committee’s total members.
3. The responsibility of SMC is to ensure regular presence of teachers and RTE implementation.
4. Apart from duties assigned during elections and census survey, no other extra work can be assigned to teachers.
5. Every boy and girl aged 6-14 years should mandatorily be enrolled in the school. The education shall be free of cost. Besides, no student, under any circumstances, be punished, physically or mentally.
6. The curriculum used in the school should be in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the Indian constitution. Therefore, the pedagogy will not make any discrimination based on sex, caste, creed and community.
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7. RTE implementation will be the responsibility of local authority. Here the local authority means the local Panchayat and the local level government structure for primary education.
The onus of RTE implementation lies not only with the state government but also with the organizations working for the social causes. DD is no exception. DD plans its role in the following manner:
a) Although there is room for improvement in the Act, still DD will create forums to get the public opinion in favour of RTE implementation.
b) Under the social mapping survey, identify and enlist unschooled boys and girls aged 6-14 years. Our efforts will be to get such children enrolled in schools.
c) Ensure that re-formation of SMC is systematized and as per the desired norms. To the extent possible, the committee members selected should be dedicated people who are willing to spend their time and energy for the betterment of schools.
d) Work towards capacity building (organizing trainings/workshops) of SMC members.
e) Ensure that with the help of Panchayat and education officers that the facilities and arrangements as mentioned in the Act are provided by the schools.
f) With the help of SMC and Education Department officials, DD will also try to improve the system so that teachers regularly come to the school and teach students properly.
We will make our best efforts to effectively implement the Act and resolve the practical problems as quickly as possible.
