MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) : Central Government reviews and monitors implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 periodically with the States and Union Territories at different fora, including the State Education Ministers’ Conferences. Educational data on outcomes are collected through Unified District Implementation System of Education (UDISE) every year. The combined RTE-SSA programme is reviewed twice every year by Joint Review Mission (JRM) comprising independent experts and members of external funding agencies, covering all States by rotation. The status of these evaluations and monitoring is placed in the public domain on the Ministry’s website.
The RTE Act, 2009 is implemented by States/UTs in accordance with their RTE rules and regulations.
(b): Section 12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 mandates that all specified category schools and private un-aided schools shall admit in
class I (or pre-school, as the case may be), to the extent of at least 25 per cent of the strength of that class, children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood and provide free and compulsory education till its completion.
27 States/UTs have issued notifications or made provision in their State RTE Rules regarding admission of children belonging to disadvantaged and weaker sections under
Section 12 (1) (c). A total of 16 States have reported admission of 18.10 lakh children in 91140 private schools under Section 12 (1) (c) in the year 2014-15. State-wise data regarding number and proportion of seats in private schools reserved for economically weaker sections is not maintained centrally.
(c): Kothari Commission (1964-66) had recommended that 6 per cent of GDP should be spent on education. The National Policy on Education, 1986, as modified in 1992, had laid down that investment on education be gradually increased to reach a level of 6% of National Income as early as possible. Government has accorded high priority to Education Sector. Expenditure on Education in 2011-12, 2012-13 (Revised Estimate) and 2013-14 (Budget Estimate), as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been 3.98%, 4.35% and 4.44% respectively. During Twelfth Five Year Plan the Plan Outlay of Ministry of Human Resource Development is Rs.4,53,728 crore (Rs.3,43,028 crore for the Department of School Education & Literacy and Rs.1,10,700 crore for the Department of Higher Education) as compared to actual expenditure in Eleventh Five year Plan of Rs.1,77,549.76 crore (Rs.1,37,902.94 crore for the Department of School Education & Literacy and Rs.39,646.82 crore for the Department of Higher Education).
(d): The outlay approved in Annual Work Plan & Budget 2015-16 for reimbursement to States towards 25 per cent admissions in private unaided schools for the academic year 2014-15 is as under:
<pre>
S. No. State No. of Children Outlay approved
(` in lakh)
1 Chhattisgarh 81316 3064.690
2 Gujarat 13033 1303.300
3 Karnataka 155378 12355.156
4 Odisha 310 15.115
5 Rajasthan 189083 4171.210
6 Uttar Pradesh 108 5.262
7 Uttarakhand 65889 4150.838
Total: 505117
25065.571
</pre>
(e): No, Madam.
(f): The Central government has taken various measures for effective implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 to improve the quality of elementary education in the country. These are:-
(i) The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic national surveys of learning achievement of children in classes – III, V, VIII, and X. Four rounds of National Achievement Surveys (NAS) have been conducted so far for class V whereas three rounds have been conducted for classes III & VIII, and one round for class X.
(ii) SSA supports States/UTs on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and early Mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (PBBB) for classes I and II. Further, the Government has launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 09.07.2015, inter alia, as a sub-component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), to motivate and engage children of the age group from 6-18 years in Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.
(iii) Under SSA, the State Governments and UT Administrations are supported on several interventions to improve teaching standards, including regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training of all untrained teachers to acquire professional qualifications through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode, recruitment of additional teachers for improving pupil-teacher ratios, academic support for teachers through block and cluster resource centres, continuous and comprehensive evaluation 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.
(iv) The Central Government has launched the ‘Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching’ in December, 2014 with a vision to comprehensively address all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, professional development, curriculum design, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.
(v) The NCERT has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education (PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools, and has shared the same with State Governments/UTs.
(vi) Further, for improving the quality of school education, the School Standards & Evaluation framework, known as ‘Shaala Siddhi’ has been developed by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), to enable schools to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner and to facilitate them to make professional judgments for improvement.
This Department has requested all State Governments for ensuring allocation of adequate amount for the school education sector in their State’s Budget in view of the acceptance of the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission for higher devolution of funds to States from 32% to 42% of the central divisible pool of taxes for the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
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