Right to Education (RTE) Act

There is hardly any doubt that the landmark Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2010, has the potential to drastically change the country and the country’s 92 lakh poor school dropouts. The government has indeed provided a framework for the poor children to get quality schooling. The policy makers, who are behind this landmark Act, must be complimented for the vision and the prudence in legislating and operationalisation of the Act. The RTI Act, 2005 and the RTE Act, 2010 stand out as two pieces of legislation the country has been yearning for decades. These two acts together would change the country radically. Nevertheless, the implementation of the programme is not fraught without some practical difficulties. This would be a demanding task as quality education in India is still a pipe dream for a large section of the society. The access to it is still within the reach of the selected rich people only. The question that is worrying the observers is whether or not the private players in the educational arena would be willing to share the social responsibility and the social costs associated with it. Another moot question that is disturbing the observers is, with the education in the concurrent list of the constitution, whether the state governments will be prepared to share the 45% of the financial burden to impart quality elementary education to the weaker sections of the society, despite the fact that Finance Commission has already given Rs. 25,000 crore to the States for implementing the Act. The education cartels with the open connivance of the politicians have always played dubious roles in crass commercialization and cartelisation of higher education. In the liberlisation era, even the school education was gradually becoming unaffordable to the poor with the advent of several elite schools in the urban areas, who are seen to be charging exorbitant fees. The successful implementation of the RTE Act will depend on the impact the Act will have on them to earmark 25% seats to the weaker sections of the locality. However, let us not start on a negative note. Instead, let us be optimistic about the success of the RTE Act.