VIJAYAWADA: Speakers at the inaugural session of the two-day Southern Regional Consultation Programme on ‘Right to Education’ (RTE) Act underscored the need of Central and State Governments to sanction adequate funds and fill the teacher posts lying vacant for the effective implementation of the Act.
Representatives from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry, dealing with education-related non-governmental organisations, participated the programme which was organised by RTE Forum in association with Save the Children in city on Tuesday.
Delivering his keynote address, Centre for Child and the Law Senior Fellow and Programme Head (Education) VP Niranjanaradhya stressed the need for implementation of the Act. A roadmap focusing on non-school going children and out of school children across the country should be developed, he said. Even after eight years of implementation of the Act and despite education being a Fundamental Right, thousands of children were not going to school, he added.
Talking about the Act further, he said that resource allocation was a joint responsibility of the Central and State governments. However, if we look at the records of the last eight years, Central government’s contribution is minimal, as earlier, when the bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, there was no financial memorandum attached to it, resulting in a lack of commitment from Centre towards the effective implementation of the Act, he said. In this regard, a road map should be drafted by the Centre, keeping in mind the needs of the coming decade, he added. Right to Education Forum National Convener Ambarish Rai said that several schools across the nation had a staff crunch.
The governments should focus on filling up the vacant posts before coming up with measures to implement the Act, he said. Unfortunately, out of 1.5 million schools across the nation, only 10 per cent have implemented the Act effectively. Implementing the Act is a challenge as 6 million children are out of school, and 40 per cent are dropouts. These children are unable to pass eighth standard, he added.