Right to Education : Policy vs Populism

With SC upholding the constitutional validity of Right to Education Act, one of the pet projects of the UPA government, the doors to private schools are now open to the economically backward students. This is definitely a good news for all the parents who want to give best quality education to their children but cannot afford the exorbitant fee charged by private schools. 

The road for RTE has not been smooth. There were a lot of objections and counter views. School managements challenged that such an act of reserving 25% seats for economically backward students infringes upon their right to run the schools. The government strongly defended its policy on RTE by stating that it has an obligation to ensure free and compulsory education to children till the age of 14 years. It is good to note that the government has finally woken up and has taken note of its responsibility.

In the past few years, we have seen the government increasing quota for OBCs in educational institutions like IITs and IIMs. Also, we have seen the government providing scholarships for economically weaker sections in states like Andhra Pradesh. Fee structure in professional colleges have been regulated. This is all good. But, how did the government take so many steps without even strengthening the grass root level primary and secondary educational institutions? We have private schools across the country charging high fee and donations from students. In Hyderabad, I know of parents who paid Rs 100,000 per annum as fee for a first standard child. On the other side, many of the government schools lack the basic infrastructure like fans, benches, and toilets. This is like constructing the 10th floor of a building even before its foundation is ready.

The RTE also says that the fee expenses for the 25% children in private schools will be reimbursed to the school managements by the state governments. Which means, apart from the expense on the state run schools, this is an additional expenditure. Instead, why can't the government use the same money to scale up the government schools on par with the private schools? The answer for this probably lies in the potential of populist measures like RTE to translate into votes in the elections.

What we also have to realise is the fact that the 25% quota is only for people whose family's annual income is below Rs 200,000. This is where there is a hard confrontation between technicalities and reality. Family with two children and two lakh income is eligible but a family with 2.5 lakh income and four children is not eligible to avail this benefit. What about those children? How will their "Right to Free and Compulsory Education" be met by the government? This poses a problem of children getting entangled between technicalities and red tape. We have seen this in Andhra Pradesh where engineering colleges have not let poor students enter the colleges as the government failed to release the fee reimbursement to the institutions.

There is also a psychological angle which has to be thought of. A son of an auto rickshaw driver attending a certain 'concept school' or 'international school' in his neighborhood may not be able to fully gel with the other 75% students from affluent families due to mismatch between their economic statuses. The 25% group in the classroom may not be able to afford the lavish fancy dress competition or an expensive excursion organised by the school. Child psychology is very tender and may get disturbed even with these kind of problems. Here, a lot of care needs to be taken by the school managements to ensure that level playing field is created among all the children in the classroom irrespective of their economic status. 

This legislation only goes on to show that the government has accepted its inability to maintain government schools on par with private schools. While RTE will definitely help a lot of poor children in the urban and semi-urban areas by giving them entry into private schools, the future of children from rural and remote areas still remains a question. The government has the ability and power to depute excellent teachers to the rural areas and train children on par with their counter parts in the urban areas. The government seems to have totally ignored this fact. In most states, university colleges funded by the government attract the brightest of the students (JNU, DU, IIT, NIT, IIM, OU, JNTU etc,.). Why can't that be the case with the government run primary and secondary schools?

The intention behind providing quality education to all is good. But, the means chosen does not seem very effective. A good quality primary education is the foundation for building a strong generation of citizens of this country. Therefore, this foundation should be robust and fool proof. It is important for the government to ensure that quality education is affordable not just to a particular section of the society, but to everyone in the country. Governments in all the states should ensure strict enforcement of fee limits on schools like the way they have been implemented in the professional colleges. After all, it is not just sufficient to provide free and compulsory education to all, but it is necessary to ensure that it is done in a fair manner.