1. Name: Kajal Sippy (Primary department).
School: Shishuvan.
Matunga.
Date:11th April 2013.
Topic: Right to Education-Implications to stakeholders.
As the topic suggests, the right to education and its implications to stakeholders is the current
issue in every educational set up. Let us just close our eyes for a minute and visualize the number
of children who are beggars on the streets, children who are victims of child rape, kidnapped
children child labour and the list is endless. It gives us the jitters, doesn’t it? Problems at the
grass root level- and we talk of rights? What are rights? Where are the rights? In this immense
society full of villainous sharks waiting to swallow the emotions, the childhood of every child,
we speak of rights? Yes, but unfortunately we do!!
So to start on a note that will give us some food for thought, let us know what is the Right to
education? What is education? A teacher teaching and a child listening, a teacher talking and a
child forced to learn? Is this education? If you think yes, please do not read ahead, but if you say
and believe that this is not what education is, then read along…………..
A typical definition of education is ‘Education is the primary vehicle for human, economic and
social development, profiting both the individual and society.’So aren’t we, the teaching faculty
educated? Where are we seeing the above mentioned social and economic development is my
question, my dear friends? The right to education states that. One of the important directives is
the duty of the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children from 6 until they
complete the age of 14 years.Ok? so what do I do if my child is 4 years of age or my child is 15
years of age? I may belong to a family below the poverty line, so I wait for my child to turn six,
before the state can do anything for him her? The other provisions of this act,( just as a memory
refresher) are the following:
The Central Government and the State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for
providing funds for carrying out the provisions of this Act.
It shall be the duty of every parent or guardian to admit or cause to be admitted his or her child
or ward, as the case may be, to an elementary education in the neighbourhood school.
The Act prohibits physical and mental harassment
No capitation fee and screening procedure for admission! Who benefits, who loses? Who are at
stake?
Who are the stakeholders of a school? What are the implications here? This is a never ending
debatable topic as every stakeholder has a certain responsibility to undertake Students have the
responsibility to work appropriately, to behave appropriately, and to take full part in the school as
an institution.
2. Parents responsibilities lie in ensuring the student attends school, is appropriately dressed, has a
healthy lifestyle so that he/she can learn, ensuring that the student does his/her homework,
supporting school sanctions against the student in the case of misbehaviour,paying heed to his or
her medical requirements.
Teachers' responsibilities are to prepare, plan, deliver and assess the curriculum in line with the
requirements of the National Curriculum and the school, to ensure the safety of their students, to
endeavour to promote their emotional security, to ensure that instances of abuse are reported to
the appropriate member of staff, to deal with misbehaviour in ways which are within the school
discipline policy, to work with colleagues to develop the school as an institution, to keep their
own knowledge up-to-date, to liaise with parents and outside agencies as appropriate.
Governments' responsibilities are to provide funding, to create an over-arching and under-pinning
set of guidelines for all aspects of education (curriculum, health & safety, employment guidelines,
standards of professional behaviour etc.) and to monitor and report upon standards nationally.
Thus, school stakeholders are not only the school board, parents, staff, and students, but also local
business owners, community groups and leaders, professional organizations, potential enrollments,
youth organizations, the faith community, media, etc. Anyone who affects or is affected by the
school’s actions .You, me. Everyone, the whole society. Passing the buck to each other is not the
solution.
Free education is often meant to imply waiver of tuition fees. But tuition fee is only a part of
educational expense, and poor families are often not able to raise other expenses needed for
education. These could include textbooks, copies and writing material, uniforms, transportation,
educational and support materials for disabled children (hearing aids, spectacles, Braille books,
crutches and so on), or even library fee, laboratory fee, etc. which are not covered under tuition
fee. The phenomenon of drop-outs in particular is related to inability of parents to meet the
educational expense of their children, often daughters, somewhere during the course of
elementary education.
The law requires all schools to fulfill highly demanding input norms such as furniture,
infrastructure, playground, special and different toilets for girls and boys, well equipped library,
sports equipment etc. so how many schools have been able to fulfill these norms? Not many / so
do they shut down? Then where do all children go/ these are all the implications on children, on
parents, on the state’s failure and on the management trustees that run private schools. The non-
exam policy, the system of automatic gradation from one class to another , not failing any child
at the primary level, does all this ring a bell of education of our times that was quite the contrary/
what implication does this have on the main stakeholders that are our children? A world that is
waiting for them on a golden platter? Would the world give salary without performance without
3. appraisal? This implication is like a bitter medicine which needs to be compassionately
explained to the child.
The implications on everyone involved in education Is large. Where is the child in all of this?
The management of private schools will have to enhance the fee graph from the haves and satisfy
the commitment by enrolling the have not’s and waiving their fees, the parents will have to
manage the maintenance of at least a basic standard of living, and yes, our dear children will be
under a severe amount of peer pressure, also maybe inferiority complex if the school does not
orient all the other students and parents about this new policy called the Right to Education.are
the implications that haven’t been thought about. It is rightly said by one of the management
authors Deepak Chopra, that,` Life is like an egg. It is your choice whether to make it into an
omelet, fry it or scramble it.’’ That is just what all our new policies do!! Not keeping the
educational objectives of skills and values to be delivered to our children, we pass so many rules
that by the end of it, we do not know where we had started. How many teachers is up to the mark
of handling kids belonging to completely diverse backgrounds under one roof, how many parents
are aware of this right? So till we are not clear about implications of it to the stakeholders, it is
imperative that all schools do so, train their teachers, educate their parents, discuss the pros and
cons and then implement the policy. For can you do your graduation, next standard 12th
, standard
10th
and so on? No!! so there is a process that process that needs cementing at a ground level and
then we can proceed, for all the stakeholders to realize and accept is of umpteen importance. An
article in the Times Of India, dated 6th
April, Saturday, written by Arvind Panagariya, a professor
of political economy at the Columbia University, stated that,``The three year compliance period
for the RTE act is just over on 31st
March 2013. What has the act accomplished?Sadly, not very
much that is positive.’’
It is time to think!
Time to ponder,
Where are the schools and teachers who care?
Education is a right, deserved by all, be they big or be they small,
Its implications need to be thought about carefully, we cannot play with lives of children,
randomly!
This essay has been written with full support for the right, if and only if the implications on the
stakeholders are well thought out and planned! It is time for us, for you and me, the teaching
faculty, the trustees of schools, teachers, non- teaching staff andparents to know what this right
demands and how well can we implement it in order to make it a mammoth progression in this
selfless area of education!!
Thank you
