Govt to send every child to school

The Centre has decided to introduce the Right to Education Bill in the budget session of Parliament.

Updated on: Feb 23, 2006, 16:23:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Centre has decided to introduce the Right to Education Bill in the budget session of Parliament, even though the unaided schools are opposing its implementation.

Sources say the Ministry of Human Resource Development has approved the revised draft. "The finance model is ready and has been submitted to the Planning Commission for approval," a source said.

The Bill has left unaided schools fuming. What hurts them most is the clause of 25 per cent mandatory reservation of the educationally backward class students in the age group of 6-14 years. They are also against the role of local authorities panchayats and municipal bodies - in the admission process.

Eyebrows are also being raised over the constitution of the School Management Committee, with local representatives, to enforce the proposed Act.

Usha Ram, chairperson of National Progressive School Association (NPSC), said the association has called a meeting of all unaided schools on February 26 to discuss the Bill. "We will chalk out a strategy then," she said.

The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has already submitted its representation to the ministry echoing sentiments of top schools of the country.

Those supporting the Bill social activist Anil Sadgopal a Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) member, said the Bill will enable the government to meet its Constitutional obligation. The supporters also say there cannot be two set of laws one for government schools and another public schools.

The introduction of the Bill became possible as the Group of Ministers, constituted to examine the report of experts and the National Advisory Council on how to finance the implementation of the Bill, submitted its recommendations to the Prime Minister's Office.

The government has estimated that Rs 57,000 crore will be required in five years to recruit additional teachers, build 17 lakh classrooms and finance elementary education in government and unaided schools. The allocation is expected to start from the 11th five-year plan.

The law, if passed by the Parliament in the current budget session, will not become applicable from the next academic year. The law will come into force only a year after it is notified as enough time is being given to states to create the infrastructure to monitor implementation of the law.

Jyoti Bose, principal of Springdales School, said there is nothing wrong in the concept but what schools are opposing is the way of its enforcement. "We want the government to re-think its implementation methodology," she said.

Principal Mayo College, Ajmer, Pramod Sharma, who is also a member of the national co-ordination committee of various school associations protesting the move told Hindustan Times: "What we are opposing is the loss of autonomy." He pointed out that schools were not only going to be made answerable to the Local Area Committees in rural areas the Panchayats and in urban areas the municipality - vis-a-vis infrastructure and teaching in the schools.

What schools are opposing.
No child coming thus under reserved category can be screened for admission.
No child can be failed till Class VIII. The students not doing well will have to be taught till they attain age of 18.
No child can be expelled on behavioral grounds until School Management Committee approves it. The expelled child will have to be admitted in a neighboring school as directed by the local authority.
Special programmes for children in 9-14 age group, who are not enrolled, so that they can admitted.

SMART BOX
Toll increases abcdyz
Roads that would be affected prposed cent toll increases:
• Dolphin Expressway: from 12 cent to 45 cent
• Don shulasde: from 12 cent to 45 cent
• Airport Expressway: from 12 cent to 45 cent

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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