When most states have implemented the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan(RMSA) under the Right to Education Act and have utilised its funds effectively, Kerala is lagging behind on this front due to governmental apathy.
According to the teachers and district educational officers, most of the funds under the Central Government’s RMSA project has lapsed as the state government has failed in proposing various schemes for sanction.
RMSA aims to impart quality education, improve infrastructure and make education accessible and affordable to students in the 14 to 18 age group. Though the RMSA was launched two years back, it has been only a month since a project director has been appointed in the state.
Unfortunately, the state’s spending on infrastructure development under the scheme has been limited. An amount of `50,000 was sanctioned for each school under the scheme. “Nothing substantial has been done,” said Deputy Educational Officers. “Each school was asked to submit the requirements. We prepared a list of requirements, all of which are yet to be fulfilled. But most of the funds have lapsed due to the lackadaisical approach of the authorities,” they said.
“The RMSA upgraded 65 upper primary schools to high schools but the headmasters have not been appointed in most of the schools. The government is planning to depute head-teachers from the aided sector to these posts so that the vacancies can be filled by the managements,” said J Sasi, president of the Government School Teachers’ Union.
The RMSA is yet to reach out to the higher secondary students who are also eligible for its schemes. According to Prassana Kumar, president of the Aided Higher Secondary Schools Association, the state project heads have not taken any effort to implement the RMSA schemes on the grounds of non-fulfillment of the norms and conditions.
RMSA joint project director Arun Kumar said some of the projects were not implemented due to paucity of funds. “We have upgraded 50 schools with a budget of `58 lakh per school, but only `20 lakh per school has been sanctioned. Moreover, `75,000 has been disbursed to over 1,000 schools for infrastructure development and `400 lakh for empowering teachers. We are not implementing any projects especially for plus-one and plus-two students as the funds are meagre,” he said.