Empowering Children through Education

While the rest of the world celebrates Children’s Day on November 20 every year, India celebrates it six days ahead, on the birth anniversary of its most beloved Prime Minister – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. With the Right to Education Bill passed successfully by our parliamentarians, education has become a fundamental right of children across the country.

However, education is not penetrating the darkest corners of India’s society, due to poor implementation. But at the same time, educationists across the country are doing their bit by stretching a lending hand to the needy and teaching the importance of education in a child’s life.

Sharonee Mullick, principal of Singapore International School (SIS), Mumbai, said, “Even though the literacy rate has gone up in our country, there are large sections of society which are deprived of basic education. It is our duty to step in and share our resources with those who are in need of help.” Read More>>

Reservation for poor students, can it work?

The govt should pay the cost of education from tax revenues, rather than taxing the parents of children going to private schools.

The Right to Education Bill has now been passed by parliament. One important provision of the bill requires that all private schools will have to provide 25 per cent reservation to poor students in admission. The government will compensate the schools for this quota of admission. What are the possible implications of this government-funded reservation initiative in private schools?

In principle, this is a laudable initiative since the poor students will have access to better quality education in private schools (which they can not afford otherwise) than is available in most government schools. Education is often the only means available for the children of poor families to break away from the poverty trap.

The government will compensate the private schools at the rates charged by government schools which are much lower. That means cross subsidisation of poor students by the remaining 75 per cent students who will have to pay higher fees to cover the shortfall. It is like imposing an additional education cess on them, on top of the education cess that they are currently paying as income tax payers.

To read full article click here

AISA to oppose Right to Education bill

The activists of All India Students Association (AISA) have decided to oppose the present structure of the Right to Education bill and demanded an expenditure of 10 per cent from the annual budget for the education sector. It has also decided to oppose the common school system as envisaged in the bill.

Sunil Maurya, secretary of local unit of AISA said that the Right to Education bill would result in the commercialization of education and privatization. The bill is also silent that 10 per cent of the annual budget would be spend on the education sector and further no recommendations of DS Kothari and Unnikrishan have been ignored in the bill.

He said that the provision of 25 per cent reservation for poor children in the schools and right to education is simple ploy of the Centre to be absolved of the responsibilities for providing education.

He said that AISA would continue to agitate on the issue of present structure of the Right to Education bill unless necessary changes are made in the bill in the interests of the children and the students at large.

Source: Times of India

Education Bill ignores disabled children: Experts

The much-hyped Right to Education Bill has drawn flak from a section of educationists for not making any provision to ensure access to quality education for differently-abled children.

Experts said the bill, now in Parliament, has taken recourse to “tokenism” when it comes to educating differently abled children, especially from poor families. Adding a few ramps in schools is the only provision it contains to deal with the issue, they pointed out.

“How does a disabled child from a poor family reach school? The Right to Education Bill, 2008, is just a token gesture to dilute the fundamental rights of such children to education and nutrition,” Anita Ghai, Reader, Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, told Deccan Herald. “We have at present approximately 30 million disabled children and out of them only 20 per  cent get proper education,” she said.

Maintaining that disability is never identified as the core issue to be addressed, Ghai said education should be considered all the more crucial for differently abled children as it helps them to lead an independent life.

To read full article click here

Rights groups cry foul over education Bill

The Right to Education Bill tabled in Parliament could deny 400 million children in India the right to study, NGOs and social rights groups have pointed out. By encouraging private investment in education, the Bill threatens to rob the poorer sections of the chance to go to school, it has been claimed.

Child rights group CRY has claimed that the Bill has no provision for pre-school goers (in the 0-6 age group) and the middle to secondary school goers (15-18 age group). Also, the commitment to improve the quality of teaching has been left vague, even as government schools lose children to poor-quality, unregulated private schools.

“Education up to middle school is not enough for a child’s growth. Let us remember that this is the right to education’ Bill and not the right to literacy and numeracy’ alone. This selection of 6-14 age group is arbitrary and contradicts India’s promise to its children, of making education available, accessible and acceptable, ” said CRY director Dipankar Majumdar.

To read full article click here

A move in the right direction despite gaps: educationists

The landmark Right to Education Bill (RTE), passed by the Rajya Sabha on July 20, now awaits Lok Sabha approval.

Educationists have welcomed the bill, but with a note of caution. Speaking to Hindu The, Farida Lambay, a member of the State Commission on the Protection of Child Rights in Maharashtra, is happy that the RTE has sought to universalise quality education for children, but pointed out several lacunae.

“The biggest one is that the bill brings within its purview only children in the 6-14 age group. This is at odds with the Juvenile Justice Act, which defines children as those under 18,” she said.

“The right to work should be given to those in the 14-18 age group if the bill implies that they are adults,” said Ramesh Joshi, deputy general secretary of the All India Federation of Teachers Organisations.

To read full article click here

Amend education Bill

The right to education is meaningless if it merely means the right of children to join a government school where little teaching takes place, and

emerge functionally illiterate. Unfortunately the Right to Education Bill just passed by the Rajya Sabha focuses only on access to government schools, not the outcome after such access.

Innumerable surveys show teachers bunk school with impunity, that many do not teach even while at school, and that children with several years of schooling cannot do simple sums or write simple paragraphs. This approach — talking virtuously about outlays and inputs while ignoring outcomes — has long been the bane of Indian development.

To read full article click here

Right to Education Bill to be enacted

The government will take all steps to enact the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2005 to provide free and compulsory education to children aged 6-14, and push for the process of examination reforms, including making Class X examination optional in accordance with the National Curriculum Framework-2005. Announcing the government’s agenda for the education sector in the next 100 days at a press conference here on Thursday, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said enactment of the Bill — also known as the Right to Education Bill — will be followed by the notification of the 86th Constitutional Amendment in the official gazette.

To read more click here