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Right to elementary education

(In reference to Right of Children to free and compulsory Education Act, 2009)

0n the auspicious occasion of All Fool’s Day, 2010, a dignified personality ofour nation addressed us and gave us, what is considered as a Himalayan

Breakthrough in the contemporary India, the ‘Right of children to Free and

Compulsory Education Act ,2009’ (herein after mentioned as the Act)

The personality with a, sort of, sky blue turban and well fitting safari suit,

declared;

“We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and

social category, have access to education. An education that enables them to

acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to become

responsible and active citizens of India”

The message was clear, mentioning about a revolution that would turn the

fate of India. Yes, indeed in the wholesome manner the Act is so, based upon

the values added to the biggest written set of living laws, through the 86th

Constitution Amendment Act, 2002, inserting Article 21A ensuring education

as a fundamental right to children in 6-14 age group.

The Act guarantees free and compulsory education to all children of India in

the 6-14 age group, but is silent on the children below six years of age,

where the basic character of a child is formed, and the deep rooted

instincts as well.

Another important point is the abolition of qualifying exams and the rule of

not holding back a child in the same standard. This type of theories tried

before in DPEP (District Primary Education Project) and SSA (Sarva Shiksha

Abhiyan) had proved a decline in the standard of knowledge of students. If

the new Act is to pose any landmark then this system needs to be taken careof and a new system with provision to reduce undue competition should

prevail.

The 25% reservation in the private institutions for economically

disadvantaged communities is another important and most debated provision

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in the Act. It is a landmark but, the decision on who are actually eligible will

be a Herculean task.

The canceling of the small scale private institutions is another setback in

the Indian perspective, especially in the rural areas where such institutionsare a boon. The basically work at the grass root level and produce

astonishing results.

Mere changing of the students-teacher ratio from 50:1 to 30:1 dose not

change anything except for creating more vacancies. What is needed in

Indian condition, is dedicated trained teachers who can impart quality

education to the masses of student who totally depend on them for basic

knowledge. Near about 10-12 lakh trained teachers will be required for the

implementation of this Act. Moreover the salary scale of about 20,000 is ahuge sum which would be a burden to the whole society.

So it can be concluded that the Act has many positive moves in it and is

capable of inducing notable changes in the field of elementary education not

in our country but also on the whole globe. But it needs a mass movement

behind it to find or acquire its penultimate goal of creating a strong,

oriented, self esteemed and self reliant community which would be immune

to the social evils that prevail in this decade. This Act if implemented in its

true and projected form will be a model to the world which now is in a state

of dilemma when the matter of elementary education is addressed.

As a last note it can be said that if this Act is supported by a huge mass

movement including all the retired, aspiring and working ‘teaching class’ then

this will be a marvelous success story else it will face sheer criticism as in

the case of DPEP and SSA.