BENGALURU: The year 2018 marks the 8th anniversary of RTE Act coming into force at the national level and 6th anniversary of it at the state level. Therefore, it is shocking to know that parents sending their kids to state-government schools have abysmally poor levels of awareness about the act.
A study, conducted by Centre for Child and Law of National Law School India University, NLSIU, revealed that the awareness of primary stake holders about the Act is at 62.18%. Block Education Officers and Government School Head-teachers score the highest and parents of children in government schools, the lowest.
The training on RTE Act was given to 34.72% of respondents, between 2011 and 2016, and they were asked to give their opinion — ranging from very good to not useful. Majority of the respondents marked ‘very good’.
While 70.33% of government school teachers were satisfied with it, only 40.68% of private school teachers expressed satisfaction. However, it is pertinent to note that no training was given to parents from government and private schools. Another finding from the study was that just 19% of the head teachers working with state government schools were aware of some clauses of RTE Act.
‘No detention policy’ under the Act forbids detaining children until the completion of elementary education. Of the 76 government schools across the state in the survey, just 19% were aware about no-detention policy! There is a high awareness about the ban on corporal punishment: 87.10% of teachers working with government schools know of this.
Dr V P Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and Law, said , “The study clearly stated that the implementation of the Act was not up to the mark.Many officials with the education department too are not satisfied with the implementation of the RTE Act in the state.