The Right to Education Act, enacted in 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6-14 in India, mandating quality education and infrastructure in schools. However, challenges such as financial hurdles, lack of trained teachers, policy deficits, and issues with implementation hinder its effectiveness, with many schools charging fees despite the law. Community participation and government cooperation are essential for overcoming these obstacles and fulfilling the act's objectives.

1. Right to Education: Issues
and challenges
PRESENTED BY: ARVIND WAGHELA
NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR (INDIA)

2. Introduction
• Free and compulsory education was made a fundamental right under article 21A of the
constitution in December 2002 by 86th amendment.
• The bill of RTE was approved by the cabinet on 30th October 2008.
• Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 20th July, 2009 and the Lok Sabha passed the bill on 4th
august, 2009.
• The bill of RTE received the notification as a law on 26th august, 2009 after the approval of
president of India, known as “the right of children to free and compulsory education act,
2009” or Right to Education Act (RTE).
• RTE came into force on 1 April 2010. (Except Jammu & Kashmir)
• India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child.

3. Key Features
 The RTE Act 2009 envisages quality and compulsory education to every child in the age group of 6-
14 years in neighbourhood school till the completion of elementary education.
 No child is liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent the child from
pursuing and completing elementary education.
 The Act also makes provisions for a non- admitted child to be admitted to an appropriate class.
 Action on the part of the government and local authority to establish a school within the limits of the
neighbourhood, within a period of three years from the commencement of this Act: also to ensure
and monitor admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by every child.
 It stipulates that no school should refuse admission to any child on any grounds.
 All the schools to ensure proper infrastructure.

4.  Maintenance of teacher-student ratio as per prescribed norms, provision of necessary
facilities in the schools, student friendly education etc.
 With an aim to promote inclusive growth, the act also provides for 25% reservation for
children belonging to marginalized sections of society.
 There are also provisions in the act like prohibiting corporal punishment, detention and
expulsion till the completion of elementary education.
 The act provides for the development of curriculum in consonance with the values
enshrined in the constitution and for all round development of the child.
 The curriculum should provide for learning through exploration; building up child’s
knowledge, talent and potentialities; development of physical and mental abilities to the
fullest extent; learning through activities, discovery and exploration in a child- friendly
and child- centered manner; making the child free of trauma, fear and anxiety and
helping the child to express views freely; comprehensive and continuous evaluation of
child’s understanding of knowledge.
 Making it a duty of parents/guardians to admit their child, in the neighbourhood
school.

5. Key Issues and Challenges

6. Financial Challenges
 The Right to Education Act is already plagued with various
financial hurdles and challenges. The fiscal burden is to be
shared to between the centre and the states in the ratio of
55:45 and 90:10 for the North –Eastern States. This project is
going to involve funds to the tune of Rs. 15,000 crores. Many
states have already voiced their inability to mobilize funds
and entered into a dispute with the centre.
 The success as far is the financial issues are concerned largely
depends upon the centre-state cooperation. The ambitious
project is already falling short of around Rs. 7,000 crores in
the very first itself.

7. Eyewash
 Despite the enactment of The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
which guarantees free and compulsory education, several schools are charging
capitation fees for education in pre-primary.
 They are also interviewing parents and/or children.
 There have been complaints from parents saying that several schools took their
interview and asked questions about their family income, vehicles they owned,
income certificates, pan card details and even the size of their flats.
 Several schools have even demanded donations at the time of admission for the pre-
primary admission, and although parents have approached officials, the latter have
failed to take any action in this regard.

8. Challenge to find Trained and Qualified
Teachers
 The teachers are the kingpin of entire education system and it is this factor on which lies the onerous
responsibility of ensuring the effective implementation of RTE Act.
 The existing teacher‘s training and education programs are ill suited to meet the contemporary
understanding of students’ needs.
 It is a fact that at any given point, about 25% teachers are on leave in India and a majority of them are
unable to do full justice to their professions due to a myriad of reasons.
 It would be a challenge to find quality teachers without any performance based salaries or any
incentives.
In the face of this, how will it fulfil its promise of providing quality education to all ? It is going to be a huge
challenge.

9. Policy Deficits
 The no fail‘ policy of the RTE Act, according to which no child from Class 1 to
8 will fail irrespective of how poorly he or she fares in exams - as under the
Right To Education (RTE) Act it has become a mandatory to pass all students
up to middle class.
 Though various state governments believe that this will increase the literacy
rate and benefit unprivileged students, get students enthused about learning
rather than simply excelling in exams, many educationists and parents feel it
would further lower the standard of education in government schools.
 Mere declaration of non-detention policy is not enough to eliminate the root
cause of stagnation.

10. Challenge to provide Infrastructure
 In a survey on ‘Elementary Education in India’, it has been found that almost
half of the recognized elementary schools in the country do not have
separate toilet for girls.
 The Act demands that the building of all the schools should be weather
proof.
 According to the Act, there should be one teacher for every 30 students.

11. Data from Legal Aid and Awareness
Committee, NLU Jodhpur Report on RTE

12. Challenges to provide Equality and
Quality in Education
 The quality of education provided by the Government system is not good.
 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 riddle with
absenteeism and mismanagement and appointments are based on political
convenience.

13. Challenge to Bring Child labours to
Schools
 Now that right to education has become a fundamental right of each and every
child, it should also be applicable to those thousands of students who are being
used as child labourers and have been denied education till now.
 There are more than 12 million children in India who are engaged in child labour
and these are just official figures.
 Unless and until a special provision is made in the Act, it would be challenging to
bring back these children to school.
 These are some of the problems that have littered the path but or HRD Minister is
quite confident of overcoming these challenged and propel India towards even
greater heights.

14. Lack of Co-Ordination between Various
Implementing Agencies
 The responsibility of bringing children to school and providing them quality
education is the work of the Human Resource Development Ministry.
 It is the responsibility of Childs Rights Commission in each state to monitor
implementation of RTE Act; these commissions are under the Women and
Child Development Department. Due to lack of Coordination between
these agencies the RTE Act is not being properly implemented.

15. 25% Reservation in private Schools
 Regarding equality, Dr. Ambedkar stated in the Constituent Assembly:
“…We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian
Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of
graded inequality which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane,
we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject
poverty.”
 As per the Seventh Educational Survey, about four crore children out of 19 crore in the 6-14
age group are currently studying in private schools at the elementary stage (class I-VIII). The
above provision will create space for one crore for which the private schools will be
reimbursed for the tuition fees. Assuming that these schools are providing quality education,
the provision helps only a minority of the underprivileged.

16. The dismal rates of
admission through RTE25
in most states shows the
failure in delivery. What
are the issues in
implementation? Is it the
government machinery?
The private schools? Or
the existing social norms
and caste prejudices?

17. Other Major Issues:
Barrier for orphans:
 The Act provides for admission of children without any certification. However, several states have
continues pre-existing procedures insisting that children produce income and caste certificates,
BPL cards and birth certificates. Orphan children are often unable to produce such documents,
even though they are willing to do so. As a result, schools are not admitting them, as they
required the documents as a condition to admission.
Some States Have Not Notified The RTE Rules
 All states have constituted their own rules for the implementation of the RTE Act. With no one
uniform rules for all states, the states have the freedom to set its own terms for the
implementation of the Act based on the conditions of elementary education and resource
availability with the state. This move offers flexibility but it also leaves scope for misinterpretations
and ambiguity at the time of implementation.

18.  All states have constituted their own rules for the implementation of the RTE
act. With no one uniform rules for all states, the states have the freedom to set
its own terms for the implementation of the act based on the conditions of
elementary education and resource availability with the state. This move offers
flexibility but it also leaves scope for misinterpretations and ambiguity at the
time of implementation.
 Provisions such as free school uniforms and books for students and
transportation facilities are vaguely defined. Even basic information such as
valid documents required to avail benefits under RTE for many states are not
entirely clear.
 Another issue with the implementation is the lack of awareness among the
targeted group. The government has been unable to spread the word about
RTE among the masses. Though there have been a few media campaigns by
the MHRD for RTE, the effort at the state level has been lacking.

19. Conclusion
 The Act admittedly has shortcomings and there are some who say that it is wholly inadequate.
 The RTE Act in its present form will neither promote its prime objective of ensuring completion of
elementary education of every child of the age 6 to 14 years nor meet the commitment of ensuring
quality primary education and at best, it is just a statement of good intent.
 The government’s intentions of engineering a social revolution by the RTE shall remain a mere wishful
thinking if the issues like upgrading infrastructure, enhancing teacher quality and promoting educational
attainment in public schools etc. are not addressed.
 Not only the central and State Governments but the nation as a whole should take responsibility in this
regard. Community participation and support can make marked difference in achieving this goal.
 This Act has put India in the same league as U.S.A. and 130 other Nations as far as the right to education
is concerned. Nothing can change overnight but there is a ray of hope. A hope that if all these hurdles
and shortcomings are overcome and the loopholes removed, then this will become the road leading
towards an Education India, a Proud India.

20. Thank You!
F o r y o u r p a t i e n c e *