Skip to main content

Right to Education? 10% schools comply with RTE, 2 lakh closed down: South Asia consultative meet told

By Our Representative
The Right to Education (RTE) Act, which came into effect in 2010, widely acclaimed as the cornerstone for "improving" the educational scenario in India, over the last eight years of its existence has seen less than 10% of Indian schools complying with its provisions to ensure universalisation of education.
Revealing this, Ambarish Rai, who heads RTE Forum, told a consultative meet meet of the South Asia Regional Forum for Safe and Secure Education in Delhi that not only there exists a huge vacancy of 5 lakh teachers’ posts, there are around 9 lakh teachers who are still untrained in India.
"A total 8% schools are single teacher schools. Poor infrastructure, issue of timely disbursement of teaching – learning materials and lack of adequate resources are some of the persistent problems that affect the learning environment in Schools", he added.
What is worse, said Rai, “We have recently seen that a large number of schools, more than 2 lakhs indeed, being shut down in the name of rationalization, with private entities coming up to occupy the educational space, leading to mushrooming of low cost for-profit private schools."
Organised jointly by the RTE Forum along with South Asia Forum, Rai told the meet, “Educational scenario in India and other South Asian countries is quite similar. There are many important and common areas like the universalisation of school education, adequate resources, equity and inclusion, teacher issues and increasing commercialisation of education, which provide us opportunities to work together in South Asia region.”
Inaugurating the meet, Union minister of state (independent charge), housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri sought coming together of government, private sector and civil society organisations to ensure safe and secure education to all, particularly girls. He said, focus should be on educating girls as anchor of all kind of progress.
Evading issues raised by Rai, Puri said, “Girls’ education is a pre-requisite of all-round development of the country. India can truly achieve sustainable and inclusive development only through a proper and compatible education system for girls in safe and secure atmosphere. All stake-holders have to join hands and work in tandem to achieve this goal.”
He dwelt on what he called "remarkable success in post-colonial reconstruction endeavour", insisting, "It has made its mark in every field at global platform. It has a robust economy of five trillion dollars with a remarkable growth rate. To continue this success, India has to work more vigorously on gender empowerment, which can be ensured only through girls’ education."
The minister said, only "quality infrastructure, safe and conducive atmosphere and quality curriculum can motivate girls and their family towards education", adding, "It’s a hard reality that large number of girls are still deprived of education system. Drop- out rate among girls are very high. There are various reasons which compel girls to leave their education midway and safety is the foremost factor."
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship missions of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are capable of dealing with these pressing issues", he claimed.
Speaking at the meet, Eric Falt, director, UNESCO, for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, said, "We must end violence against girls, particularly in schools. Only then we can be able to motivate them towards education."
According to him, “Violence against girls vitiates overall atmosphere including educational one. All policy and programmes will get ineffective because of violence against girls in schools.
He added, "Mistreatment and sexual harassment in schools have made girls’ life miserable these days. Learning without fear is the need of the hour. All governments should design appropriate policies to end gender based inequality and violence."
Participating in four different sessions, prominent persons who took part in the discussions included Kumar Bhattarai, chairperson, National Campaign for Education, Nepal; and Radhika Alkazi, steering committee member, South Asia Regional Forum on Safe and Secure Education; Prof Muchkund Dubey, former Foreign Secretary; Aminulhaq Mayel, deputy director, programmes, Swedish Committee of Afghanistan; and Papia Ferdousei from the BRAC Education Programme, Bangladesh.
Also present were top civil society representatives, including Alka Singh, head, policy and advocacy, Save the Children, India; Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India; Dr Colin Gonsalves, founder, Human Rights Law Network, and senior advocate, Supreme Court; and Anjela Taneja, technical director, education, Care India.

Comments

TRENDING

'Draconian' Kerala health law follows WHO diktat: Govt readies to take harsh measures

By Dr Maya Valecha*  The Governor of Kerala has signed the Kerala Public Health Bill, which essentially reverses the people’s campaign in healthcare services in Kerala for decentralisation. The campaign had led to relinquishing of state powers in 1996, resulting in improvement of health parameters in Kerala. Instead, now, enforcement of law through the exercise of power, fines, etc., and the implementation of protocol during the pandemic, are considered of prime importance.

Reject WHO's 'draconian' amendments on pandemic: Citizens to Union Health Minister

By Our Representative  Several concerned Indian citizens have written to the Union Health Minister to reject amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA75) in May 2022, apprehending this will make the signatories surrender their autonomy to the “unelected, unaccountable and the whimsical WHO in case of any future ‘pandemics’.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Bihar rural women entrepreneurs witness 50% surge in awareness about renewal energy

By Mignonne Dsouza*  An endline survey conducted under the Bolega Bihar initiative revealed a significant increase in awareness of renewable energy among women, rising from 25% to 76% in Nalanda and Gaya. Renu Kumari, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Nalanda, Bihar, operates a village eatery that serves as the primary source of income for her family, including her husband and five children. However, a significant portion of her profits was being directed toward covering monthly electricity expenses that usually reach Rs 2,000. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Work with Rajasthan's camel herders: German scientist wins World Cookbook Award 2023

By Rosamma Thomas*  Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only awards for international food culture. This year, German scientist  Ilse Kohler Rollefson , founder of Camel Charisma, the first of India’s camel dairies, in Pali district of Rajasthan, won the award for her work with camel herders in Rajasthan, and for preparing for the UN International Year of Camelids, 2024. 

Why is electricity tariff going up in India? Who is the beneficiary? A random reflection

By Thomas Franco*  Union Ministry of Power has used its power under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to force States to import coal which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity production and every consumer is paying a higher tariff. In India, almost everybody from farmers to MSMEs are consumers of electricity.

'Very low rung in quality ladder': Critique of ICMR study on 'sudden deaths' post-2021

By Bhaskaran Raman*  Since about mid-2021, a new phenomenon of extreme concern has been observed throughout the world, including India : unexplained sudden deaths of seemingly healthy and active people, especially youngsters. In the recently concluded Navratri garba celebrations, an unprecedented number of young persons succumbed to heart attack deaths. After a long delay, ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) has finally has published a case-control study on sudden deaths among Indians of age 18-45.

Hazrat Aisha’s age was 16, not 6: 'Weak' Hadith responsible for controversy

Sacred chamber where Prophet and Aisha used to live By Dr Mike Ghouse* Muslims must take the responsibility to end the age-old controversy about Hazrat Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet (pbuh) – it was 16, not 6 (minimum was 16, Max 23 per different calculations). The Hadiths published were in good faith, but no one ever checked their authenticity, and they kept passing on from scholar to scholar and book to book.  Thanks to 9/11, Muslims have started questioning and correcting the Hadiths, Seerah, and mistranslations of the Quran. Now, the Ulema have to issue an opinion, also known as Fatwa, to end it and remove those Hadith entries. Mustafa Akyol, a scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying “the received traditions” and critically study their religious past, shedding rigid legalism and close-mindedness. Someone else used the phrase “copycat Muslims” to identify scholars who copied what was given to them and passed it on without researching or questioni

'Pro-corporate agenda': Odisha crackdown on tribal slum dwellers fighting for land rights

By Our Representative  The civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning what it calls “brutal repression” on the Adivasi slum dwellers of Salia Sahi in Bhubaneshwar by the Odisha police, has said that the crackdown was against the tribals struggling for land rights in order to “stop the attempts at land-grab by the government.”