Compliance is non-uniform, school infra is often poor, children continue to face social isolation — any wonder enrollment remains sub-par? Part 1 of 3-part series
Fifteen years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was enacted, a lot remains to be done to achieve its primary goal: providing free and compulsory education to children aged 6-14 years in schools, including private ones.
Under the law, private schools are required to allot 25 per cent of their seats from classes 1 to 8 for students under the RTE quota, with the government reimbursing their tuition fees.
Studies and reports from various states reveal a troubling picture of the ineffective implementation of the Act, with many children still remaining out of school.
Additionally, those who have benefited from the RTE, in some capacity, often do not receive the full advantages it is supposed to offer.
Origins of RTE
The RTE Bill was approved by the Union Cabinet, in the UPA 2 regime in July 2009, and passed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the first week of August 9. After receiving Presidential assent, it was notified as a law on August 26, 2009, and came into effect on April 1, 2010.
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Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: "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.”
According to educationist Anita Rampal, the National Literacy Mission in the 1990s generated a lot of demand for education. “Adults, parents said that if we can come to the centres and learn, why can’t our children get a good education? So, the demand for good public education had really peaked by then,” she told The Federal.
Experiment in Delhi
In 2002, in such a socio-political environment, the Fundamental Right to Education for children aged 6-14 came into being through Article 21 A of the Constitution.
In Delhi, the experiment began in 2004-05, according to advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who works on education-related cases. “It was because of our group Social Jurist’s petition that schools on government land had to give 25 per cent reservation to EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) students. This was also one of the reasons why it was felt that it has to be extended to the whole country,” he told The Federal.
The RTE, therefore, was the natural extension of all these developments.
What data says
However, 15 years down the line, there is a substantial gap between theory and practice. “The 25 per cent EWS norm has been implemented in some states, but in many states, it has not been implemented properly,” said Aggarwal.
The admission process is filled with obstacles. There is a 1 km distance (between school and home) criterion for admissions that sometimes becomes an excuse to reject an application. In 2023, the Madras High Court ruled that the distance norm is only directory, not mandatory, and that a child should be given admission even if the school is further away.
Rampal said that earlier, data on RTE compliance was easier to get, but it's no longer the case. “RTE needs a certain kind of compliance, there are certain requirements. Now, they're completely forgotten,” she said.
Many teachers continue to single out EWS students, labelling them in this manner in the classroom...EWS quota places children in a challenging social position, straddling two different worlds: Report
The available data also shows a worrying picture. A status report titled “Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Where do we stand”, released by the Right to Education Cell (RTE Cell) and the Council for Social Development (CSD) of New Delhi last November, showed that many students were still out of school.
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The report emphasised that approximately 2,469 private schools closed between 2015 and 2018, while notices for closure were issued to around 13,546 private schools for failing to comply with RTE norms and standards.
It also revealed that about 5 lakh schools (34.4 per cent) did not have the required number of teachers as per the RTE norm.
Poor compliance
Under the RTE, schools are supposed to provide uniforms and books to EWS students and comply with infrastructure requirements.
This means there should be drinking water, separate toilets for boys and girls, boundary wall, playground etc.
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However, even in terms of infrastructure, the report found that “there are still three-fourths of the government and private schools that are not fully RTE compliant even after 14 years of implementation of the RTE Act. It was stated that at the all-India level, only 25.5 per cent of the schools were RTE compliant”.
Teacher behaviour
The report also emphasised teacher behaviour towards EWS students as a major barrier to their education.
“Many teachers continue to single out (economically) ‘weaker students’, labelling them in this manner in the classroom. This identification pushes them into a ‘zone of silence’, creating a sense of separation. Various studies indicate that the EWS quota plac es children in a challenging social position, straddling two different worlds,” the report said.
“These children, attending private schools under the EWS quota, often lose connection with their neighbourhood peers due to differences in exposure and educational standards. However, they also struggle to fit into elite circles, as they do not share the same socio-economic means as other students,” it added.
Story across states
Reports from various states do not seem to contradict the national picture.
According to a recent report by Indus Action, a New-Delhi based organisation, Karnataka experienced a significant decrease in RTE compliance since 2019, as entry-level admissions fell by 98.87 per cent from 1,16,273 in 2018-19 to just 1,312 in 2023-24.
In Delhi, sources say 20-30 per cent EWS seats go vacant each year. This is despite the Delhi government increasing the annual income cut-off from Rs 1 lakh to 5 lakh. The overall number of EWS seats has also shrunk to 35,000, per the last data available for 2023, compared to 50,000 in 2018-19.
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In Andhra Pradesh, in the academic year 2022-23, 2,500 students were admitted under RTE in private schools. However, there are allegations that many schools did not fully allocate these seats due to delays in reimbursement from the government.
Recently, several schools in Gujarat, including those in Ahmedabad, reportedly demanded additional documents from the parents for the children admitted under the RTE Act. This was beyond what is specified in the admission card, forcing the authorities to intervene.
No detention policy
Perhaps the biggest, most recent attack on the RTE came from the Centre's controversial decision to notify the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
Also read: Centre scraps 'no-detention policy' for classes 5, 8 students, allows failing students
This rule allows states to eliminate the "no-detention policy", enabling the detention of students in classes 5 and 8 for failing their examinations. This came five years after the RTE Act was amended in 2019 to include a clause allowing the “appropriate government” to decide on holding back children in these classes.
According to reports, at least 16 states and two Union territories decided to scrap the no-detention policy, while 16 others opted to retain it.
“While there was no separate detention policy, the RTE said 'education for all'. It said we should give children a full focus on their development, on their understanding and assess their learning continuously and comprehensively throughout the year in a local, decentralised manner because centralised exams are not good. But this notification changed that. It hit at the heart of the RTE,” said educationist Rampal.
(With inputs from Jinka Nagaraju in Hyderabad.)
Coming soon: The RTE story across states
