MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)
(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 (U-DISE) 2015-16, the number of
Government schools at elementary level has increased from 10.48 lakh in 2009-10 to 10.77 lakh in
2015-16 and 96.53% 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 2015-16, the PTR at national level for
primary and upper primary schools is 23:1 and 17:1 respectively which is better than the norms of
the RTE Act 2009.
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been designated as
the vehicle to support States and UTs in implementing the provisions of RTE Act, 2009. Since the
inception of SSA in 2000-01, opening of 3.64 lakh new elementary schools, construction of 3.12
lakh school buildings and 18.87 lakh additional classrooms, 2.42 lakh drinking water facilities, 3.94
lakh boys toilets, 5.17 lakh separate girls’ toilets, 1.40 lakh Children with Special Needs (CWSN)
toilets and 19.33 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned to States and UTs. Out of this, 3.59 lakh
elementary schools have been opened, 2.94 lakh school buildings and 17.97 lakh additional
classrooms, 2.35 lakh drinking water facilities and 9.95 lakh school toilets have been constructed
and 15.16 lakh teachers have been recruited as on 31st December, 2017.
(b): 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.
(c): 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. 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.
A National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted on 13th November, 2017 through
which the learning levels of around 22 lakh students of Classes III, V and VIII from 1.10 lakh
schools across 700 districts in all 36 States and UTs were assessed. This competency based
assessment was based on the Learning Outcomes developed by the NCERT. District report cards
(provisional) for NAS 2017 have been released by this Department and are available on MHRD
website. Through NAS it is for the first time that the teachers have a tool to understand what
exactly the child should be learning in various classes, how to teach this through activities and how
to measure and ensure that children have reached the required level.
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.
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