New Delhi: On Tuesday, an NGO (Non-Government Organisation) said, a year after the ambitious Right to Education (RTE) was enacted, that it faces numerous challenges such as high dropout rates, lack of schools and lack of monitoring agencies to check implementation of the act in several states.
CRY (Child Rights and You), an international child right organization, said that it is hard to give the big picture of the education scenario when the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is encouraging from Class 1 to 8 with 94.9 percent and Class 1-12 with 77 percent.
On Tuesday, CRY States that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) does not take into account the number of those who actually attend school, and how many drop out. Government schools lose 25 percent of their students by grade 5, and almost half (46 percent) by grade 8.
CRY also added that as many as 80,43,889 children in the 6-14 age group fall into the 'never enrolled' category, and are out of school. Many children are not in school simply because there is none. The RTE Act promises free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to 14.
CRY said in its statement that 17,282 eligible habitations in India do not have a primary school within one kilometre of the habitation. Within the sphere of infrastructure, 1,48,696 government schools in India are without a building, 16,5742 schools are without drinking water, and 4,55,561 schools are without toilets. Nearly 1,14,531 primary schools are single-teacher schools.
The RTE (Right to Education) Act authorized the State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), would be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the act. In states, where SCPCR was not constituted, the department of education can form a Right to Education Protection Authority (REPA) to directly look into the monitoring aspect.
Though, only nine states have State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCRs) and two states in the absence of SCPCR has constituted REPAs Right to Education Protection Authority (REPAs), hence out of 27, 16 states were left without an authority to monitor implementation of the RTE Act, said by CRY.
It is interesting to note that a major portion of the allocations to education is earmarked for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which, according to the government, is the main vehicle to implement the RTE Act, said by Kreeanne Rabadi, Regional Director of CRY.
Also she added in her statement that, however, our analysis says the government's allocation to the SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) has increased by only 10.53 percent, most of which comes from the two percent education cess on central taxes. The allocations from sources other than that have gone down from Rs.7769.10 crore (Revised Estimate 2010-11) to Rs.7096.15 crore (Budget Estimate 2011-12). So, insufficient budgets are an issue that needs to be addressed.
Kreeanne Rabadi, also states on the current situation that, the one-year-on report card is discouraging, but not hopeless. However, what is clear is that this slow movement will not lead to any major shifts in India's public education.
