The Mess...
•20 per cent of teachers are untrained
•Dropout rate is 10-50 per cent
•No drinking water, separate toilets for children in most government schools
The Need...
•Govt needs to spend Rs 48,000 crore every year to put 6-14 year-olds through school
•To teach them, India will need 12 lakh qualified teachers next year
“...if the child is unruly or indisciplined, or does not study at all, or does not pass a single test or exam, the child must be promoted to the next year. Our children will suffer, and school performance will become like all government schools. Teachers will have a very difficult time ....These children have to be educated free, and the reimbursement will only be as per determined costs, which means, to be borne by other parents, including you.”
—Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao
Higher Secondary School, Chennai
These unvarnished words came in a letter the school sent to parents in a bid to seek solidarity over concerns raised by the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Horrified by its elitism, one of the parents, A. Narayanan, informed the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The NCPCR notified the state government. Since then, Narayanan and other parents haven’t heard anything on the topic from the school.
A year on, the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of this far-reaching law and mandated that all schools (except unaided, minority and boarding schools) reserve 25 per cent of seats at entry level (Std I) for children from economically weaker sections (EWS) of society. A debate eerily similar to the late noughties’ debate over reservation in colleges and universities has begun. The biases and prejudices on display now are of the same flavour as of those displayed then. Private schools raise the following points:
•EWS kids will bring down standards
•There’ll be problems of adjustment between rich and poor students
•Government compensation for admitting poor children won’t be adequate
•The Act provides for free schooling till the child is 14 (Std VIII). What happens to the child after that?
•And most vitally, shouldn’t government improve its schools rather than force private schools to take the load?
The last argument alone holds some weight, for the ratio of government schools to private schools is about 80:20. “The government must really focus on what ails government schools,” says advocate-activist Ashok Aggarwal. “Nearly 10 lakh children are waiting to get admission in government schools.” Yet, equally, there’s a strong demand for studying in private schools, for such is the low opinion of government schools. The din over the RTE threatens to take attention away from doubts about the government’s own commitment to educating everyone. “State governments must walk the talk and deliver on the RTE by concentrating on improving their own schools,” says Annie Koshi, principal, St Mary’s School, Delhi, a private, unaided school. “Schools like ours have worked at integrating children from diverse backgrounds long before RTE was notified. It would have eased the situation if the government had involved the private sector as partners instead of taking on this authoritarian, strident tone.” As in every academic year, six differently abled children and 22 street children were among the 120 children admitted to Std I at St Mary’s this year.
“State govts must walk the talk and deliver on the RTE by improving their schools. We have for long worked at integration.”Annie Koshi, Principal, St Mary’s, Delhi
Some word it carefully. “There are several challenges,” says Debi Kar, director and former principal, Modern High School for Girls, Calcutta. “For instance, we need teachers. Where are the teachers? Simultaneously, we need teacher training. There’s a huge demand for seats. The move (25 per cent reservation) will put additional pressure. We need to simultaneously maintain our high standards.”
Subala Ananthanarayanan, principal of the Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Adyar, Chennai, says, “Since the SC ruling last week, the only question is: how will we manage the finances?” The school has spent on infrastructure and set up e-labs and is not convinced—like many others—by the government’s promise of compensating it for admitting poor students. Some are seeing a long legal battle ahead. “We’ll approach the Supreme Court for a review of the judgement by a larger bench,” says Visalakshi of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association. “Our lawyers say there’s a case for a review.”
While private schools complain, government schools are doing what they can. The Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Noor Nagar, Delhi, boasts that its 2,500 girls are on an even footing with students of the best private schools. But it works under severe constraints. “Government school teachers are called for election duties. We are not free to collect donations or accept money from companies. We have a commitment to teach and, well, our salaries are protected,” says a former principal.
The government-run Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas (Std VI-XII), which are of fairly high standards, serve as role models. But against the vast deficit, this is clearly not enough. After RTE was implemented, the NCPCR, mandated to audit its implementation, carried out the first door-to-door status report of government schools in 12 states. The preliminary findings are revealing:
•In most schools, there’s no drinking water, leave alone toilets for children
•In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, teachers ‘outsource’ their work to anyone they choose
•The dropout rate is 55-60 per cent
•There’s a huge shortfall of qualified teachers: besides the 5.23 lakh vacancies in government schools, they need another 5.1 lakh teachers. Figures for private schools are not available.
A draft report of the government had rung the alarm on these issues two years ago. It had noted the lack of infrastructure: 5.12 per cent government schools don’t have a building; 13.78 per cent government elementary schools in rural areas don’t have drinking water supply; 54.7 per cent don’t have toilets; 77 per cent don’t have electricity. Those working on the NCPCR report say their findings might paint a worse picture. Yet, when the SC, acting on a PIL, directed state governments to submit an affidavit on toilets and supply of drinking water in government schools, almost all said facilities were in place. Says NCPCR member Sriranjini Vadiraj, “We were expecting the states to admit they need more time, but nothing prepared us for what the affidavits said.” Educationist Vinod Rai says the RTE calls for systemic changes and “the real test will come in March 2013, when an audit will be conducted”.
Some experts reckon that by next year, India will require 12 lakh teachers and Rs 48,000 crore as yearly expense on education. Is the government prepared for that? If only to show its commitment to what it holds up as a showpiece law?
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