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Emerging Challenges in Universalisation of Equitable and Inclusive Education for All[edit source] Elementary education for children of 6-14 years became a fundamental right in 2009 with the passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. Even after 7 years of the Act coming onto force, millions of children are still out of school. According to SRI- IMRB survey in September 2014, the number of out of school children is estimated to be 60.64 lakh while MHRD in December 2014 estimated out of school children to be 1.03 crore. DISE data estimated that 98.5% children are enrolled in schools. Adding to the discrepancy, a fresh analysis of the Census 2011 data revealed that 8.4 crore children have never attended schools. Before one cycle of eight years of elementary education is complete the Act is facing severe challenges. Inadequate resources like, lack of basic infrastructure, teacher vacancy, lack of trained teachers, in-service training and so on so forth has been one of the pressing challenges. Poor quality textbooks and untimely distribution of textbooks have emerged as another challenge which impact quality of education in schools. The recommendations of the 64th CABE committee report have further diluted the RTE Act on several aspects. Similarly closure of government schools in states like Rajasthan, Orissa and Chhattisgarh particularly has propelled particularly girls to leave their schools due to distance and unsafe environment.

Financing the Act Financing of the Act, faced the challenge from the beginning. The Tapas Majumdar Committee asked the state to spend 1.37 lakh crores over a period of ten years i.e from 1998 to 2008 and to bring all children in the age group 6-14 years under the ambit of education. The Kothari commission recommends spending of 6 % GDP on education which is still stagnant at a meager 3.5%. While the RTE Act was passed in the Parliament, at the time of its passage, no financial memorandum was attached to ensure or indicate the availability of required funds for its implementation. Consequently, the budget allocations over the last few years have seen low allocation to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the vehicle for implementation of the Act. The incremental budgeting done by the government failed to calculate the adequate resources and use it effectively for universalization of education. A study done by CBGA on 10 states found that after the devolution of funds as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission, expenditure on school education has increased only in the states of Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. The Central Government needs to substantially increase the share of education in the total central budget. Today the provision for expenditure on school education as a percentage of the total Union budget is very low. It was 2.43 (Revised Estimate) in 2014-15, 2.44 (RE) in 2015-16 and 2.19 (BE) in 2016-17 which remained stagnant at the same in 2017-2018 budget. This ridiculously low figure needs to be brought in line with the practice followed by several developed and developing countries. It is, therefore, suggested that like Indonesia and some other developing countries, the government should enact a law committing itself to devote a particular percentage of the total budgetary expenditure for expenditure on education. The law should provide for two separate targets, one for the states and other for the Central Government. However, the trend set from 2014 continued even in 2017-18 budget. A higher allocation of resources for school education from pre-school to secondary education was expected. But after a year of long waiting, school education has been totally neglected in the budget. The budget has ignored the effective implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE) and a meagre increase in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) budget – by Rs 1,000 crores – will not help in any way to implement the RTE Act meaningfully.

Integrated Child Development Scheme In 2017-2018 Budget, ICDS has not seen much increase in budget and it has received only Rs. 15245.19 Crore. ICDS in third phase of expansion towards universalisation faces many challenges such as inadequate availability of space for Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), vacant posts, low focus on growth monitoring, low focus on early childhood etc. The Finance Minister announced that Mahila Shakti Kendras would be set up with an allocation of Rs. 500 crores in 14 lakh ICDS Anganwadi Centers. This will provide one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.

Mid-Day Meal The Mid-day meal scheme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development entitles every child within the age group of 6 to 14 years, studying in classes I to VIII, to be provided meal free of charge in schools. Mid-day Meal Scheme observed increase of 3.09 percent in its allocation (from Rs. 9700 Crores in 2016-2017 to Rs. 10,000 Crores in 2017-2018). within the age group of 6 to 14 years, studying in classes I to VIII, to be provided meal free of charge in schools. Mid-day Meal Scheme observed increase of 3.09 percent in its allocation (from Rs. 9700 Crores in 2016-2017 to Rs. 10,000 Crores in 2017-2018).

Midday Meals and Aadhar Although some states recognized the need for nutritional support for children and provided for it in a limited manner, it was only in 1995 that the midday meal scheme came into force as a centrally sponsored scheme for primary school children of government, government-aided and schools run by local bodies under the name National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE). In November 2001, the Supreme Court, in response to a PIL initiated by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, issued the order that every child in government and government-aided primary schools will be provided with a prepared meal with specified calories and nutrition. The NPNSPE was expanded in 2007 to include children in upper primary classes of six to eight and renamed as National Programme of Mid Day Meals in Schools. The National Food Security Act, 2013 has clearly provided for this nutritional entitlement of children up to the age of fourteen years. The Midday Meal in schools is therefore the legal right of every child ensured by both Supreme Court orders and the NFSA. It also increased enrolment and retention, and insured attendance and better learning. For many children this is the only complete meal that they may have access to in a whole day. Scientific studies have also established a clear link between under-nutrition and increased morbidity and mortality in children and adults in both communicable and noncommunicable diseases underlining the need for at least one balanced meal for children in school. In its haste to enroll all citizens - of which children form a large untapped population - under Aadhar, the central government has issued notifications making Aadhar mandatory for most government schemes. This includes pensions, PDS, maternity benefits and more recently the midday meal scheme. The notification dated February 28, 2017 directs “Individuals desirous of availing the benefits under the (mid-day-meal) Scheme offered at the Schools are required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication”. This is illegal and in contravention of all Supreme Court orders. Also, any conditionality imposed on providing food for children, besides being completely unethical, will severely impact all the benefits that have been achieved so far and unjustly deny children their fundamental right to food, as also their right to education, health and privacy. A similar order of the same date will also adversely affect the cook-cum-helpers who are engaged from especially vulnerable groups for preparing the hot cooked meals in schools. Girl children will be particularly affected by this order as they will be the first to be pulled out from the school system and the last to get the benefit of nutrition at home. Unfortunately, children’s lives and future are being held to ransom in the government’s unjustified race to enforce the Aadhaar Act. About 10.03 crore children benefited from hot cooked food in 11.5 lakh schools during 2015-16 (www.mdm.nic.in). The Supreme Court has clearly stated in a series of orders that Aadhaar is purely voluntary and cannot be made compulsory for any services to which people are otherwise entitled. It has also made it clear that the Aadhaar Act does not supersede these orders, until such time as the Court settles the issue of compatibility of Aadhaar with the right to privacy.

Protection of children As experienced in previous budgets, child protection sector continues to be on the periphery with the lowest share in the total Union Budget as well as Budget for children(Bfc). This year, child protection received only 0.05 per cent of total allocations in the Union Budget and 1.49 per cent within BfC. Like other sectors, this sector too remains under resourced despite an allocation of Rs. 1062.43 Crores-an increase of 54.80 per cent. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) emphasizes on the principle of universality and inviolability of child rights and focuses on protection of all children in the 0 to 18 years age group. NCPCR has been allocated a total sum of Rs. 19 Crores in the Union Budget 2017-18, the same as in previous year’s budget. This neglect of this area will severely impact on implementation of the RTE Act, grievance redressal mechanisms and complete universalisation of education from pre-primary till the secondary education. As per recent official data, around 63 lakh children aged between six to 17 years are working for more than 180 days in a year. These figures display how the ruling party ignores the promises made in their election manifesto to enhance financing education up to 6% – which if implemented could have made education accessible to each and every child. The lurking question remains: How can digitalisation of education and skill training be possible without universalisation of basic education? This budget will benefit only a select few children in higher education, 25 crore children within 6-14 years of age from their universal rights to education. Addressing Human Resource Gaps A deplorable PTR continues according to the MHRD’s National Education Policy (NEP) Report of the Committee for Evolution of New Education 2016. There is a shortage of five lakh teachers in government primary schools; and 14% of secondary schools don’t have the prescribed minimum of six teachers. There are delays in teacher appointment and deployment. In fact, teachers continue to be appointed on contractual basis, in violation to provision of the RTE Act. Around 20 percent permanent teachers and 30 percent temporary teachers have not obtained the professional qualifications required as per the RTE Act (DISE). On the other hand, the service conditions of teachers remain poor with a continued delay in the payment of salaries. Due to the shortage of support staff in schools, teachers are often burdened with administrative work beyond school hours. 10% schools are single teacher schools which gives additional duties to teachers. Although the RTE Act clearly indicates the non- academic duties besides working on Census election duties for which teachers may be appointed, in reality, the list is endless and teachers are often forced to do unnecessary, non-academic tasks instead of spending time in the classroom. Until teachers are made free from all these additional responsibilities, it is challenging to expect improvements in the quality of learning.

School Closure School closure has emerged as a pressing challenge in the current context. This aspect is primarily linked with commercialization of primary education and maintenance of schools where there are lesser number of children. This is particularly so in hilly and sparsely populated regions. One of the norms is to provide schools at not more than one kilometre of walking distance. Any move to close down such schools on the ground that their full capacity is not being utilized will be a violation of this norm. If this consolidation is carried out, as has been done in several states recently, the children coming from the tribal and economically backward families would suffer more. According to media reports and department education officer, last year 368 schools has been closed in the state of Uttarakhand. More than 4000 schools are in the position to close due to policy paralysis or promotion of privatisation of education. The table below shows that lakhs of children are rendered out of school without ensuring re-enrolment of the children in other government neighbourhood schools in Rajasthan.

Privatisation of Education In the past two decades, post the onset of the ‘so called’ economic liberalisation, the role of private sector in education has grown rapidly in India. This is in sync with what has been happening in the rest of the developing world which is also going through similar economic processes. Private schools are not a new thing, and have existed in India for long. What is new is the increasing emphasis about handing over the function of elementary education to the private sector to replace the existing government school system. Private education is being promoted and explored in many parts of the world as a solution to lack of sufficient public provisioning of education or perceived underperformance of public schools. This aspect of privatisation of education needs to be questioned on aspects like quality of education, equity and equality of educational opportunities and availability of free education for all children. In India, the recent news in the Business Standard reads- “Bridge International to partner with AP state government : Press Trust of India” ( Vijaywada, September 9th, 2015), raises concerns not only for AP but for the rest of the country also as this would be held up as a model for other states to follow.” ≥Pre-primary and primary education provider Bridge International Academies expressed interest in partnering with the Andhra Pradesh government to make the state a knowledge hub. An Andhra Pradesh state government release said here today that Bridge International Academies Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Shannon May met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here. Bridge International Academies, which currently educates hundred thousand children in more than 400 schools in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria plans to foray into India with its proposed partnership with the AP government, the release said. During the meeting, Naidu sought Bridge International Academies' support to strengthen the delivery of early childhood education and primary education in the state, the release said. He said that the group could use the low-cost technology it has pioneered, to radically improve learning outcomes through accountable delivery, the release mentioned. "Bridge International Academies is the world's largest and fast growing low-cost pre-primary and primary education services provider working with children from under-served communities. It is backed by leading investors such as Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (CEOofFacebook), Khosla Ventures, International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), and others," the release said.≤ Bridge International Academies (BIA) one of the largest education for-profit companies in the world, plans to sell basic education services directly to 10 million fee-paying students in low-income communities throughout Africa and Asia by 2025 by establishing low cost schools in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and India. The news about the Andhra Pradesh Government handing over a large number of schools to a private organisation has brought back the focus to the issues of Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in Education and the overall issue of privatisation of education in general. The handing over of schools by the Government of course needs to be seen from the perspective of such actions in other countries as well as from the perspective of PPP models being used in the delivery of basic services such as in health. Similarly, it also has to be seen in the perspective of increasing privatisation of education in India. Various State Governments have tried to push for greater privatisation in the arena of education in various ways: notably in Rajasthan, Odisha, Karnataka among other states. There have been hundreds and thousands of closures of government schools in the name of rationalisation in all these States. The Rajasthan Government has come out with a PPP policy for school education, stating the handing over of management of schools to Private players. And the Government of AP is entering into an agreement with BIA to set up its India headquarter in Vijayawada. However, even apart from these examples, the scenario of the education sector is changing across India and shifting towards creating space for profit private players. The first major issue that seems to be on the minds of people these days is the relative quality of education in government schools and private schools. It is often assumed that private schools provide better education than the government schools. But mostly this assumption is based on accidental or selective comparisons than actual independent research. The ASER report has been bringing out fairly systematic comparison for the past many years and in the recent 2014 data it shows that in AP (where the state Government has approved BIA’s low schools), there are no significant advantage of private schools over quality of learning as against government schools. The second issue that is brought up is the whole comparison of Government and Private schools regarding cost efficiencies. Again it is assumed that the government education system is more expensive and handing over it to a private player in one form or the other will provide a greater bang for the buck. Is this really true? Are Private schools really cost effective? Well if so, is it majorly because of better management or majorly because of poorer quality/strength of staff and infrastructure facilities? The private players are not governed by any regulatory framework or standardisation. So are we ready to compromise with the standards of education? In India Caste is another major challenge for social inclusion. We know that dalits/tribals and Muslims today have a higher dropout rate as compared to others. In this context, particularly with the enactment of RtE Act, with its various prescribed norms, it becomes vital to bring in equity in the field of education. The inclusion of socially excluded children in education and eradication of discrimination against them must become our core concern. Presently the implementation of the norm of 25% reservation in Private schools for the economically weak and socially disadvantaged children also does not really address the concerns of caste and other forms of social segregation. Similarly, Girls face lots of disadvantages and exclusion in the education system. Girls education is an intrinsic right as well as a critical lever in meeting the overall developmental goals. Studies prove that girls are less likely to be admitted in private schools over boys; thus with privatisation of school education, girls’ education would be the first to be badly hit. Private tutoring is a practice today in public as well as private schools, however State’s lack of proper systems to monitor that the teachers are delivering the required courses properly in schools within the teaching hours, will lead to corrupt practices with regard to tutoring privately. Thus, this will not only affect children from lower income groups but all children, thus creating a situation where children will not be able to effectively access free education which is also compulsory. Finally, the increasing trend of Privatisation will surely lead to a situation where the role and accountability of the State’s obligation to provide education for all will be reduced to minimum and the worst could be the State exiting the field of education provisioning. This means the State will no longer see itself as the primary provider of Education. Thus this will have significant effect upon the availability of, access to and the right to education of the most marginalised. It clearly show the rise of Privatisation of education in the country both through increase in the number of private schools as well as in the number of students enrolled in them. As per the DISE data, there is steep difference in the percentage of growth of Government schools as compared to Private schools. While Government schools increased in numbers by less than 2 per cent, private schools increased by as much as 24.28 per cent. While enrolment in public schools declined by 8.5 per cent it increased by 24.42 per cent in private schools. As per the DISE 2015-16 data, there are 23.08 percent private schools in the country. The trend is more or less the same in the previous years also. With regard to unaided private schools, on which Government has far less control, there are 18.13 per cent schools in the category at the national level. The trend of a high percentage of Unaided (private) schools is seen in several states, viz. Delhi (46.02), Andhra Pradesh (20.44) Gujarat (20.91), Haryana (29.41), Punjab (25.155), Rajasthan (31.89), Telangana (31.16), Uttar Pradesh (28.47) and Uttrakhand (22.31). A high 29.2 percent of children are enrolled in classes I-VIII in private unaided schools in India as a whole. The corresponding percentage for several states are far higher than the national average, as in the case of AP (38.10 per cent), Delhi (39.52), Gujarat (32.55), Haryana (46.39), HP (37.39), J&K (44.65), Karnataka (36.03), Kerala (29.70), MP (33.46), Punjab (41.78), Rajasthan (49.05), TN (34.33), Telangana (49.72), UP (44.56), Uttrakhand (47.46). Andhra Pradesh Government entering into an MoU with the BIA to run low cost private schools is an extreme case of privatisation of education. At the same time several other states are also engaging various other ways of privatisation of school education, through closure of Government schools, not addressing the issues of poor investment and quality in Government schools and promoting private public partnerships in education.

Neighborhood Schools and Community ownership While the Act laid down certain holistic measures to involve the community (through the creation of School Management Committees (SMCs)) in the functioning and monitoring of schools, multiple problems have emerged with respect to the SMCs; mainly related to selection of members of the SMCs, the process of SMC formation, the ability to carry forth their responsibilities, their capacity to prepare SDPs, their autonomy and their ability (and inability) to question the school authorities where their children are currently enrolled. SMCs continue to remain unequipped to carry out their assigned tasks due to their limited or weak empowerment, or inadequate training. As a result they have limited decision making authority and as widely reported their recommendations are neither accepted nor respected. But it is essential to note that this gloomy picture does not mean that it is impossible for the SMCs to emerge as a strong voice in the community. In certain pockets within states, SMC members (with the help of civil society) are beginning to assert their rights. At the same time, several states are beginning to form federations of SMCs (formal or otherwise). Thus, Karnataka has an SDMC federation that precedes the notification of the RTE Act. Manipur also has an SDMC federation, whereas CSOs in Jharkhand and UP have also taken steps to form SMC federations.

Efforts to Remove the No-Detention Policy 64th Annual Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) was held in New Delhi. It has been decided that no child will be failed till Class 5. Further the states will have the final say on whether they want to held back students beyond that. It has also been agreed that the Central Government may bring in suitable amendment which will give states the freedom to review the ‘No Detention Policy’. This is so because many states have opposed this provision complaining that the level of learning has come down because of this provision. All in all, in laymen terms, the Centre has empowered the states to take a call on whether they would like to implement or exclude the nodetention policy in schools, for which it would amend the current provisions of the Right to Education Act (RTE). Its decisions are, however, recommendatory in nature. The last two years have witnessed multiple efforts by the central government and few state governments to amend Clause 16 of the RTE Act which mainly prohibits the holding back of a child in the same class or expulsion of the child before she/he completes her/his education. The main argument given for those proposing removal is that this clause compromises on the quality aspect of education where often children have to be promoted from one level to the other despite not having learnt adequately at the current level.

New Education Policy The dialogue on a New Education Policy started in 2015. After thousands of ground level consultation claimed by the government a five member committee was constituted by the MHRD headed by TSR Subramanian. His 250 page report was reluctantly received by the MHRD and after sometime another document titled “Inputs to the draft New Eductaion Policy” was posted on the MHRD website and called for suggestions from the public. RTE forum submitted its suggestions.

Unavailability of Textbooks Unavailability of textbooks on time in schools of Delhi and other states like Rajasthan, Assam, Uttar Pradesh have emerged as a huge challenge to quality education. Textbooks reaching schools just before exams have developed as a trend today. Teachers distribute old school books to children and very few children get new books. This affect learning levels of children which is a critical component of quality education. However quality education is a much comprehensive term and cannot be used replaceable with learning levels. Untimely distribution of books also indicates corruption involved in the production and distribution processes.

Safety and Security in Education Issues of safety and security are increasingly becoming a barrier for children belonging to marginalised regions especially girls. Parents are less likely to allow daughters to attend school if they have to travel long distances. Even boarding or residential schools are not a solution as children are alienated from their culture and roots and fail to learn from the milieu which is integral for development of the individual as well as the community. Lack of separate sanitation facilities particularly affects adolescent girls. Boys often experience beating and bullying; girls more likely to be called on for service tasks (e.g., cleaning), or be sexually assaulted or harassed. Besides gender based violence, lack of separate toilet for girls, lack of proper infrastructure, invisibility of girls and her experiences in curriculum, lack of an environment free from fear and anxiety and cultural practices like child marriage, son reference is creating barriers for girls children in a massive way.

Central Government: Amendment of the Act for extension of timeline for teacher training till 31st march 2019 will ensure that all teachers, in position as on 31st March, 2015, acquire the minimum qualifications prescribed by the academic authority to extend the period for such training for four years up to 31st March, 2019.

(From 7th Stocktaking Status Report of RTE Forum)

Ambarish Rai, National Convener, RTE Forum