Concerns with Amendments to RTE Act

What is the issue?

• Lok Sabha recently approved an amendment to the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Click here to know more.
• Giving states the power to detain students who fail an examination in Class 5 or 8 would undermine the intent of the Act.

What are the concerns?

• Guarantee - The Act guarantees and provides for the continued presence of the child in school during the formative learning phase.
• Thus, detention would weaken this significant, progressive feature of the RTE Act.
• Detaining is unlikely to be an incentive, when social circumstances already make it hard to ensure regular attendance.
• Examination - It will allow State Boards to declare a student failed and detain her on the basis of an examination.
• But RTE Act assures that no child shall be required to face any Board examination till completion of elementary education.
• Dropout - The NITI Aayog had found that bringing back detention in elementary schooling would increase the dropout rate.
• This would impact the poor and Dalits the most, as they depend on government institutions.
• Drawbacks - There are some genuine concerns on learning outcomes produced by India’s schooling system.
• But these are determined not only by a student’s effort.
• It depends on various other factors including:

1. the number and quality of teachers
2. the processes for continuous assessment
3. the active engagement of parents and the community in encouraging excellence

• It is the lack of attention to some of these determinants that has created a “broken” school education system.
• Detaining already disadvantaged children can only break it further.
• Any dilution of the RTE Act without sufficient thought will erode a major constitutional achievement.

Source: The Hindu