Question : FUNDS FOR RTE ACT

(a) whether in view of recent Supreme Court’s directives to bring all the recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the Government’s budget allocation for the year 2012-13 has been affected;

(b) if so, whether the Government has asked the Planning Commission to enhance budgetary allocations for RTE;

(c) if so, the details thereof and the response of the Planning Commission thereto;

(d) the total funds required to implement the Act over the next five years, the manner in which these funds are proposed to bear ranged and the details of ratio of the expenditure to be shared between the Centre and the States;

(e) the response of the State Governments on the implementation of RTE according to the Supreme Court’s directive; and

(f) the other measures proposed to be taken to ensure implementation of the RTE as per directives of the Supreme Court?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (Dr. D. PURANDESWARI)

(a) to (d): The Supreme Court in its judgement dated 12th April, 2012, has upheld the constitutional validity of the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009 and has held that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act is applicable to all schools referred in section 2(n) of the RTE Act , other than unaided minority schools. An outlay of Rs 2,31,233 crore for the five year period of 2010-11 to 2014-15 has been approved for implementing the SSA-RTE programme. Of this, Rs.24,068 crore is the 13th Finance Commission award. The remaining is to be shared between the Centre and States in the ratio of 65:35 for all States/UTs, except the eight States in the North Eastern Region (NER), where the existing sharing pattern of 90:10 would continue. For 2012-13, Central Budgetary support for implementing SSA-RTE programme is Rs. 25,555.00 crore. The 13th Finance Commission has awarded financial assistance for elementary education of Rs.4,881 crore to the States for 2012-13.

(e) &(f): The Government has not so far received any reaction/response from the State Governments specifically on the Supreme Court verdict. However, since the enactment of the RTE Act, several steps have been taken by the Central and State Governments for implementing the RTE Act, including the following:
(i) The Central RTE Rules were notified on 9th April, 2010, which are applicable to five UTs without legislature;
(ii) 28 State Governments have notified the State RTE Rules;
(iii) The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Framework for implementation including the norms under SSA have been revised to correspond with the provisions of the RTE Act;
(iv) Teacher qualification norms have been notified, and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) has been conducted by the Central Government and several State Governments;
(v) Since the commencement of the RTE Act, sanctions have been issued for opening of 39,502 new primary schools and 11,952 upper primary schools, construction of 28,561 primary schools and 8,247 upper primary schools, construction of 4,98,339 additional classrooms, 2,49,400 toilets, and 22,791 drinking water units, and appointment of over 6 lakh teachers.