10 things about RTE Act

The Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009: has ten functions


• It makes education Free
• It makes education compulsory for the state to provide
• It provides for Curriculum to be in consonance with Constitutional values
• It addresses Quality of Teachers
• It sets norms for Quality of schools
• It has a Social Reform function (25% seats in private schools)
• It removes child labour
• It de-bureaucratizes transfer certificates
• It provides for Participation of Civil society in Education (SMC)
• It removes oppression of Examinations

The first realisation is that we are dealing with an Act, not a policy or scheme such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The common school policy formulated by Bihar is a very good one, but could not be implemented yet because it was policy, not law. But in the case of the RTE Act, the states do not have the option to keep it on a shelf. It’s been passed by Parliament, and out of the hands of the State Governments. Since it is a Central Act, it has to be implemented and there’s no scope for stalling.

[ The Act makes it compulsory for the State to provide free and equitable education to all children]
It has been observed that there have been fundamental changes in social legislation in India during recent times. The first was Right to Information (RTI), the effects of which have been widely experienced. The second was the Right to work, (NREGA). The Right to Education is the third link in the chain. The results of the RTI and right to work have been experienced and widely reported. Maybe they have some defects or limitations, but there’s no question that RTI and NREGA have had an impact on government and civil society.

[Photo: Two kids at their Midday Meal provised in a State run school in Bihar ]

Constitutionally speaking, the Right to Education Act surpasses the first two, because it is the result of an Amendment of the Constitution of India, an amendment which gave children the fundamental right to education. Last fortnight there were two notifications, one was of the Act and the other was the notification of the 86th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 21 A could not be notified unless the law was in place. Now that the Act is in place, the notification is achieved.

The Act comes into force on the 1st of April 2010