discussions: Disadvantaged children stay behind despite RTE

[MANOJ B. PATEL 21]

Mar 26 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Disadvantaged children stay behind despite RTE

New Delhi:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK





In the last five years the Right to Education Act's key provision of providing 25% reservation to disadvantaged children has been poorly implemented with only 29% of the 21.4 lakh seats reserved for them getting filled.

An exhaustive report * State of the Nation: RTE Section 12(1)© * by IIM, Ahmedabad, and Central Square Foundation covers private schools in 28 states and is based on the analysis of District Information System for Education (DISE) 2013-14 data.

 

What emerges is a wide variation across states. If Delhi is right on top having filled 92% of 38,297 seats for children from economically weaker sections (EWS), Madhya Pradesh has filled 88% of 1.82 lakh EWS seats.Undivided Andhra Pradesh has an abysmal record of filling only 0.2% of 1.72 lakh seats. Uttar Pradesh has filled 3% of 5.84 lakh seats, Tamil Nadu 11% of 1.43 lakh seats, Maharashtra 19% of 1.42 lakh seats. Bihar's fill rate is 20.78% of 18,930 seats and West Bengal has done better by filling 32.05% of 54,097 seats for EWS.

 

The report also highlights that in 2013-14, out of 2.06 lakh private unaided schools with Class I, only about 45,000 schools reported enrolling students under EWS category . States such as Andhra Pradesh (0.1%), Odisha (1%) and Uttar Pradesh (2%) have reported the lowest school participation rate.The report also highlights a fair amount of inconsistency between the DISE data and data on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan website, state websites, and even those reported as responses to RTI queries that were filed by the authors.

 

Anita Kaul, former secretary, department of justice, who played a pivotal role in the drafting and implementing RTE Act, said, “The study will provide useful inputs in finding out gaps in the implementation of RTE Act.“ She said RTE Act is perhaps the only Act where rules were drafted in a record time of one year. “Maybe there is a need to review some of the rules to resolve ambiguities and gaps,“ she said.

 

For the full report, log on to http:India News, Latest Sports, Bollywood, World, Business & Politics News - Times of India