MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) & (b): As per Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2013-14, 12.2 crore children were enrolled at elementary level in 10.9 lakh Government schools. As per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, elementary education is free in all Government schools. State-wise enrolment of children in elementary Government schools is at Annexure-I. Sixteen States have reported enrolment in private unaided schools in the academic year 2014-15 of 18.1 lakh children getting free education under Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act, 2009.
(c) & (d): The centrally sponsored scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), has been amended to extend financial support to States/UTs to meet the objectives of the RTE Act, 2009. Since the RTE Act, 2009 has come into force on 1st April, 2010, 42,313 primary schools and 14,386 upper primary schools have been sanctioned under SSA. An additional 6.95 lakh posts of teachers have also been sanctioned under SSA to maintain the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) as per RTE norms.
Section 7 of the RTE Act provides that the Central and State Governments have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out the provisions of the RTE Act. Allocation of outlays of the States under SSA are made on the basis of the approved Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWP&B) prepared by the States based on their requirements. The central share released to States/UTs under SSA during the last five years is at Annexure-II.
(e): The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 was amended in 2012 to clearly state that the provisions of the said Act shall apply to conferment of rights on children to free and compulsory education subject to the provisions of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution of India. The Act would not apply to Madrasas, Vedic Pathsalas and educational institutions primarily imparting religious instructions.
(f): The Central government reviews and monitors implementation of the RTE Act periodically with the States at different fora, including the State Education Ministers’ Conferences, through school based data provided under U-DISE. The Central government also releases an annual publication on State-wise progress under the RTE Act, which is available on the Ministry’s website. The Government of India has also introduced several measures to facilitate the implementation of the SSA to meet the objectives of the RTE Act by (i) launching ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’-a foundational programme to improve early reading and writing with comprehension and early mathematics and a focus on strengthening Science and Maths learning at the upper primary level; (ii) launching ‘Rashtriya Avishkaar Abhiyan’ – a convergent framework to make Science, Mathematics and Technology exciting for children; (iii) sharing an exemplar on continuous comprehensive evaluation in elementary education developed by the NCERT; (iv) sharing learning outcomes by class and stage of education brought out by the NCERT; (v) conducting the 3rd round of National Achievement Surveys for Class III, V and VIII to track student learning outcomes; (vi) bringing out guidelines against discrimination in schools; and (vii) monitoring of States to set up decentralized grievance redressal systems under the RTE Act.
***
Download PDF Files
