MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) to (c): 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 sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood private unaided schools in Class I or below to the extent of at least 25 percent of the strength of that class. Section 12(2) further mandates that such schools shall be reimbursed expenditure incurred by them as per the prescribed norms.
The Government of NCT of Delhi has informed that some of the cases of economically weaker section/disadvantaged group category admission in private unaided recognized schools of Delhi on the basis of fake income certificates have come to their notice. List of the schools where such cases have been detected in Delhi are at Annexure. Delhi Police has registered some FIRs against the concerned schools. Government of NCT of Delhi has issued directions to all the private schools to be cautious in this regard and exercise due diligence as well as carry out necessary verification before admissions so as to ensure the benefits under Section 12(1)(c) are given to the targeted group of children. During the last three years, a total of eleven complaints regarding admission of students in schools in the State of Uttar Pradesh were received by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and those were forwarded to the State Government of Uttar Pradesh for taking appropriate action.
The RTE Act, 2009 provides monitoring of child’s rights to education and redressal of grievances by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) at central level and by State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCRs) at State level. The Ministry has issued guidelines on 23rd November, 2010 to all States under Section 35 of the RTE Act, 2009 for implementation of Section 12(1)(c). Further, education is in the Concurrent List and majority of the schools are under the purview of State governments and it is primarily for the States to take appropriate action on the complaints of admissions under 25% quota meant for economically weaker sections on the basis of fake income certificates. Whenever any complaints in this regard are received by the Central Government, they are forwarded to the concerned State Governments with a request to enquire and take prompt action on the matter.
(d) & (e): After implementation of the RTE Act, a considerable improvement has been noticed in the infrastructure in the schools. Before the RTE, there were 132352 primary schools which have increased to 182413 till 31st December, 2015. Similarly, the number of upper primary schools has risen from 80889 to 105036 during the same period. In the year 2009-10, schools with drinking water facilities and schools with toilet facilities were 185796 and 273247 respectively, which rose to 230400 and 961415 till 31st December, 2015. Similarly, upto 2009-10, 916946 additional classrooms were constructed in the schools. After implementation of the RTE Act, the number of construction of additional classrooms rose to 1729476 till 31.12.2015.
As per data from Unified District Information System for Education, the enrolment of children at elementary level in 2009-10 was 18.78 crore, which increased to 19.76 in 2014-15 after implementation of RTE Act.
Bridging gender and social category gaps in elementary education is one of the major goals of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Consequently, SSA attempts to reach out to girls and children belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Muslims and other marginalised communities. SSA has also given attention to urban deprived children, children affected by periodic migration, and children living in remote and scattered habitations.
Under the SSA, the districts with high concentration of population of SCs, STs and Muslims have been identified as Special Focus Districts (SFDs). Through the interventions made under SSA in SFDs, at the national level the enrolment share of SC children as per District Information System for Education (DISE), 2013-14, at elementary level is 19.72%, whereas their share in population is 16.6% (as per Census 2011). Similarly, the enrolment share of ST children at elementary level as per DISE 2013-14, is 10.63%, whereas their share in population is 8.6% (as per Census 2011). Participation of students at school has an impact on their learning outcomes. Four rounds of National Achievement Surveys (NAS) have been conducted so far by the National Council of Educational Research & Training for class V whereas three rounds have been conducted for classes III & VIII. These reveal that that SC/ST children have performed better than the national average in Language, Maths, Science and Social Science, in many of the States.
The drop-out rate in respect of ST children has come down to 10.16% in 2013-14 from 11.77% in 2012-13 at primary level. Similarly, in case of Muslim children the drop-out rate has decreased to 7.03% in 2013-14 from 10.70% in 2012-13 at primary level.
Under SSA, since its inception and upto 31.12.2015, 92021 primary schools, 54623 upper primary schools and 851473 additional classrooms have been constructed in SFDs. In SFDs with ST concentration, 106 residential schools and 190 hostels have been sanctioned.
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