MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)
(a) : A report on ‘Status of Implementation of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education (RTE) Act, 2009 (2016-17)’ has been released by the Right to Education Forum, a nongovernmental
organization. The Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human
Resource Development was not associated with this Report.
As per Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2016-17, the number of
Government schools at elementary level has increased from 10.48 lakh in 2009-10 to 10.73 lakh in
2016-17 and 98.67% of Government Schools have drinking water facilities. With the
construction/reconstruction of 4,17,796 toilets in 2,61,400 government elementary and secondary
schools within one year upto 15.08.2015 under Swachh Vidyalaya initiative, all Government schools
were provided access to gender segregated toilets for girls and boys. Further, RTE Act 2009, in its
Schedule, lays down the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) norms for primary and upper primary schools at
30:1 and 35:1 respectively. As per UDISE 2016-17, the PTR at national level for primary and upper
primary schools is 22:1 and 18:1 respectively which is better than the norms of the RTE Act 2009.
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was designated as the
vehicle to support States and UTs in implementing the provisions of RTE Act, 2009. Since the
inception of SSA in 2001, sanction has been given for opening of 3.64 lakh new elementary schools,
for construction of 3,12,747 school buildings, 18,89,689 additional classrooms, 2,40,564 drinking
water facilities and 10,63,164 school toilets. States and UTs have reported opening up of 3.59 lakh
new elementary schools and construction of 2,95,382 school buildings, 18,08,452 additional
classrooms, 2.35 lakh drinking water facilities and 10,11,518 toilets as on 30.09.2018.
(b) & (c): Section 6 of the RTE Act mandates that the appropriate governments and local
authorities shall establish, within the area or limits of a neighbourhood, a school, where it is not
already established, within a period of three years from the commencement of the Act. In this regard,
Central rules provides for the establishment of primary schools and upper primary schools within a
distance of one kilometer and three kilometer of the neighbourhood, respectively.
National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA) has been
collecting the school education data, including data on number of Government schools imparting
education at elementaty level. As per U-DISE – 2016-17 (provisional), there are a total of 10.73 lakh
Government schools at elementary level in the country. These schools have provided access to schools
to more than 97% habitations. As per Annual Work Plan & Budget 2018-19 (AWP&B) data of all
States and UTs, 97.15% habitations are served at Primary Schools within a radius of 1 km, and
96.49% habitations are served by Upper Primary Schools within a radius of 3km. The remaining 3%
habitations are largely remote and sparsely populated which do not qualify for opening of schools as
per neighbourhood norms. All these habitations are being covered through residential schools, Hostels
and provision of Transport and Escort Facility. The statement showing details on State and UT-wise
number of Government schools imparting elementary education during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17
is given at Annexure.
(d) & (e): No, Madam. The RTE Act, 2009, effective from 1st April, 2010, mandates that every
child of the age of six to fourteen years shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a
neighbourhood school till the completion of his or her elementary education. All States and UTs,
defined as the ‘appropriate Governments'' under the Act, are implementing the provisions of the RTE
Act, 2009 through their respective state RTE Rules. Section 12(1)(c) of the Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides for admission of children belonging to weaker
section and disadvantage group in the neighbourhood in private unaided and specified category
schools in Class-I (or preschool as the case may be) to the extent of at-least 25% of the strength of that
class and providing them free and compulsory elementary education including at primary level. The
disadvantaged group of children includes street children, children without adult protection, children
working in unhealthy occupations like rag-picking, begging and sex work, abysmally poor sanitary
conditions, inadequate nutrition from begging, a range of psychosocial stresses, physical abuse and
sexual exploitation, exposure to hard drug abuse and children in far flung rural areas. Reimbursement
to State/UTs are provided based on per child cost norms notified by the State Government. Further, the
State Governments are to decide the methodology, norms, categories of EWS and reimbursement
norms and amount to Private unaided schools that have enrolled/admitted such children.
(f): The Government of India has taken several initiatives to facilitate the implementation of the
RTE Act and to ensure universalization of quality elementary education in the country. Earlier, the
provision of RTE Act, 2009 were implemented through SSA up-to 2017-18. Now, SSA along-with
other two centrally sponsored schemes of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and
Teacher Education (TE) have been subsumed under a new scheme-Samagra Shiksha, which is under
implementation in the country with effect from 1st April, 2018. It is an overarching programme for the
school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and
equitable quality education at all levels of school education.
In order to focus on quality education, the Central RTE Rules have been amended on 20th February,
2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes for
each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and
Social Science up to the elementary stage have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States
and UTs. These would serve as a guideline for States and UTs to ensure that all children acquire
appropriate learning level.
Further, the State Government and UT Administrations are supported on several interventions
to improve teaching standards, including regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for
newly recruited teachers, academic support for teachers through block and cluster resource centres,
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system to equip the teacher to measure pupil
performance and provide remedial action wherever required, and teacher and school grants for
development of appropriate teaching-learning materials, etc.
Further, the RTE Act, 2009 was amended in 2017 to ensure that all teachers acquire the
minimum qualifications prescribed under the Act by 31st March 2019 to reinforce the Government''s
emphasis on improvement of quality of elementary education. The National Institute of Open
schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through Open Distance Learning (ODL)
mode.
The Shagun portal has been launched to create a repository of best practices from the States
and UTs and to enable online monitoring of implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 through the SSA
programme.
****
Download PDF Files
