(a) whether the Government proposes to formulate a policy to determine the quality outcome in school education
under the RTE Act;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether there is no focus on outcome based learning under the current Act and model rules for the RTE;
(d) if so, the details thereof;
(e) whether the Government has conducted any study to determine the improvement in quality of teaching at the school level during the last three years; and
(f) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SHASHI THAROOR)
(a) & (b): The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, mandates several features to
improve the quality of elementary education. Section 25 of the Act lays down the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) at school
level, Section 23(1) lays down the minimum qualifications for teachers and the condition of passing a Teacher Eligibility
Test (TET). Section 26 further provides that vacancies of teachers in a government and government aided school shall
not exceed 10% of the total sanctioned strength.
In order to improve the teaching-learning process, Section 24 of the RTE Act lays down the duties of teachers that
include, inter alia, conducting and completing the prescribed curriculum within the specified time, assessing the
learning ability of each child and providing supplementary instruction, if required, holding regular meetings with
parents and guardians to apprise them of the child’s regularity in attendance, ability to learn and progress made in l
earning, etc. The Schedule to the Act also prescribes the minimum number of working days/instructional hours in an
academic year, the minimum number of working hours per week for teachers and provisions for library, teaching learning
equipment and sports equipment in schools. Further, Section 29 of the RTE Act lays down the parameters for a child-
centric curriculum to be taught and for a comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the student at the elementary school
level.
(c) & (d): The principle of continuous and comprehensive evaluation under Section 29(h) focuses on outcome-based
learning as the child is assessed continuously, instead of at the end of the session, and their learning difficulties
are addressed, thereby ensuring that the child keeps pace with the learning goals of the class.
(e) & (f): In order to measure student learning outcomes, the National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) conducts periodic surveys of children in classes III, V and VIII, which provide national trends as well as
comparative state-wise data. The findings of the third round of learning achievement of class V in 2010-11 indicate
that learning levels in language have improved in 24 States/UTs, in mathematics in 14 States and in environmental
studies in 24 States/UTs.