Most states to miss March 31 deadline for compliance with Right to Education Act

On Monday, when the deadline for compliance with the Right to Education (RTE) Act expires, children will get a short shrift again. Government data shows about 40% primary schools don't have adequate teachers, 33% are without girls' toilets and 39% lack ramps for children with disabilities.

With the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in 2009 all states and Union Territories were expected to comply with the norms by March 31, 2013 — a deadline that most states will miss. These norms included optimum pupil-teacher ratio, infrastructure rules like adequate drinking water, toilets, stipulated working days and instruction hours and establishment of school management committees.

Of the 52 lakh sanctioned posts of teachers, there are 11 lakh vacancies. Besides shortage, states are also battling the malaise of untrained or under-qualified teachers that is pegged at around 8.6 lakh or 20% of the total teachers. The states with the bulk of these teachers is West Bengal (1.97 lakh), Bihar (1.86 lakh) and Jharkhand (77,000). Infrastructure norms for drinking water (94% of schools) and ramps (in 61% of schools) have been complied with, while 64% schools have separate toilets for girls and boys.

States have sought an extension in the deadline as they flounder due to lack of adequate resources and political will. But experts point to a more worrying concern: the lack of attention to learning outcomes. Several studies, including the ASER survey 2012, say that while enrolment has increased and more children are going to school, learning levels have dipped.

Noting that over three lakh private budget schools face closure after March 31 — the deadline for meeting infrastructure requirements under the Act, impacting 4-5 crore students — Ashish Dhawan from Centre Square Foundation said private school regulation should be based on audited performance rather than input-based norms.

Educational Initiatives' SridharRajagopalan said that regular and third party measurement of learning was required. Giving the example of Gujarat that organizes an annual assessment for student learning called `Gunatsav', Rajagopalan said that students were assessed by teachers in the first round and then 25% randomly picked schools were assessed by ministers and senior officials led by CM NarendraModi.

Accountability Initiatives' Yamini Aiyer pointed out that learning outcomes had to become part of the states' and Centre's goals. She also underlined the importance of the school management committees and greater involvement of parents in running a school.

Civil society representatives said that a large number of low-fee private schools faced closure because of undue emphasis on infrastructure issues rather than learning outcomes.

Teachers with special skills ready to break education barriers

SSA trains 140 teachers to understand children with special needs
“In our school, we have children with autism studying with other children. After this training, we have the courage and skills to take care of them. We won’t get angry or put them in the last row. Now, we understand them. (Earlier), we didn’t know.”

This transformation in Prasad K.V.L.N., a teacher in Government Higher Primary School, Sajankady, Puttur, comes after a 10-day training programme organised by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

As many as 140 teachers from various government schools in the district attended the programme aimed to sensitise them so that no child with special needs — irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability — is left behind. Some children with special needs (CWSN) might have one predominant disability with associated difficulties.

The training was an attempt to empower teachers as part of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which mandates every school must have one teacher who is CWSN-friendly, and every child must get barrier-free education, said N. Shivaprakash, Co-ordinator, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. “We cannot have a child with low vision or hearing-impaired seated in the last row,” he said.

With the implementation of the RTE, more children, including CWSN, are joining regular schools, so teachers must know how to take care of them. The training sensitised the teachers to 10 disabilities defined by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), with visits to special schools and interaction with doctors and specialists, Mr. Shivaprakash said.

Hanumanthappa, teacher, Government Higher Primary School, Mavinakatte, Belthangady, said the training, especially about identifying children with special needs and referring them early to the district psychologist, was helpful. “Earlier, the attitude was to send away the child to a special school,” he said.

Juliet, teacher, Government Primary School, Bantwal, said helping a child with special needs get access to education requires teamwork from students, doctors, psychologists and, especially parents.

Mr. Prasad said, “This (information) is not there in D.Ed... The training can help in every house.” Teachers can tell Accredited Social Health Activists, health centres or doctors visiting districts from special schools, about challenged children, he said.

Irene, Inclusive Education Resource Teacher, Mangalore Urban, said the training is for teachers of regular schools and is required because RTE emphasises inclusive education. The training helps teachers handle cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome, muscular dystrophy, speech and hearing problems and autism.

Ragpickers on the road to education

Rights of children with disabilities

The Right to Education Act (amendment) Bill passed recently in the Rajya Sabha to widen the beneficiary net for children with disabilities is a retrogressive step since it defeats the very purpose of the Act, which is to promote social inclusion in elementary schools. The amendment is in contradiction of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the recent Supreme Court judgment (April 2012) on RTE, since it seems to suggest that home-based education may be the best option for children with 'severe disability.'

The very notion of what constitutes 'severe disability' is a contested term and the assumption that 'certain children' may be best educated at home rather than schools, defeats the very premise of inclusive education that espouses the belief that every child, including those with differing abilities have an entitlement to study with their peers and not be excluded from mainstream education. Even if we were to presume that certain parents 'choose' home-based education for say their child who has severe medical complications with impairment , how would the state governments find the human resources to make home-based education a reality?

Currently, there are a total of 415 institutions which are recognised by Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) to run rehabilitation councils, and the total number of registered rehabilitation professionals in the country is approximately 35,000, with special educators included in this figure.

A recent study has highlighted that in 2007, the total number of special teachers' requirement for all categories of children with disabilities stood at 1,79,116 ( IAMR, 2009) - a current shortfall of approximately 1.4 lakh special teachers. According to MHRD, the number of out-of-school children with disabilities remains a high 35% (SRI-IMRB , 2009) and currently coverage of children with disabilities stands at 26.4 lakh in mainstream schools and 2.4 lakh through home-based education. Is homebased education going to be the vehicle to legitimatise rejection of children with disabilities from schools?

The above mentioned figures are based on Census 2001 estimates of 2.3% of the population with disability . Census 2011 results are due and expected to show an increase in the national population of children with disabilities. Is exclusion and segregation going to be the path that India chooses to meet the fundamental right to education of children with disabilities in the country? This is a contradiction to India's commitment to ensure access to quality education for all children including those with disabilities.

Two years of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education

It has been two years since the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act came into force (April 1, 2010). As per RTE, every child in the age group of 6-14 years would be provided eight years of elementary education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his/her neighbourhood. All schools have been given three years (2013) to prescribe to norms and standards laid out in the Act, or they will not be able to function.

However, many obstacles still remain for the successful implementation of the Act. One such challenge is rapid urbanisation. A recent Unicef report, 'The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World,' states that India currently has an estimated population of 377 million people and by 2026, 40% of its total population is projected to be living in urban areas.

Does urbanisation translate to better opportunities for learning for children? On the contrary, as many children instead of being in school, continue to beg and work for their livelihood. A case in point is the recent incident of a 13-year-old domestic help who was rescued from an apartment in Delhi, where she was locked and had been starving for three days, while her employers are out of town.

Urmila Sarkar, chief-education , Unicef, says, "Schools play a transformative role. Education is the key to prevent children from being in exploitative or vulnerable situations . We have to ensure that children are in schools and are safe. Child protection structures, too, need to be in place to ensure children do not fall through the cracks."

On how safe are schools as incidents of children being hit by teachers still persist, she says that corporal punishment is banned under RTE, further adding, "We need to find alternative means to discipline children without using the cane, and support teachers to promote positive behaviour change in the classroom."

According to Rukmini Banerji, directorprogrammes , Pratham, one cannot have a fixed strategy to take children off the roads and place in a school set-up . "One has to look at where they were and are and where they should be, and accordingly a strategy needs to be worked out." Ensuring that a child goes to school is not enough because a school building isn't enough for a child to be educated. "What happens in the classroom is as critical," she adds.

Both Sarkar and Banerji agree that the focus should be on learning outcomes. "It's not enough to have children in schools; we have to provide the right learning support. Instead of being fearful of the system, children should want to complete their studies ," says Banerji.

One way of ensuring this, suggests Rajat Khawas, principal consultant, Joint Policy Advisory Group, Manipal City and Guilds, is to recognise prior learning. "Many children may have skills such as weaving, carpentry, etc, before they join a formal school set-up . These skills should be recognised, which would encourage the children to stay on in the system," he says, while reiterating the importance of vocational education.

A National Stocktaking Convention on the Implementation of RTE Act will be held in the Capital on April 3 and 4.