The Indian government has been toiling hard to alleviate the literacy scenario of the nation over the [past few years. Obstacles like poor awareness, budgetary constraints, school dropouts, poor economic status of the citizens and many more have always been a bane for the nation.
The government has thus chalked out that proper and compulsory education for the younger generation is the only solution for the large majority of those problems. Without doubt, it is obvious that educating the younger masses is an example of better foresight than doing the same for the older ones.
In order to absolve this situation, the Indian government enacted a new bill in the year 2009 that came to force in 2010. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act made free and compulsory education a new fundamental right. It is implementable for all children between 6 to 14 years.
This Act (RTE) not only made education free and compulsory for all children in government schools, it also made all private schools to compulsorily reserved 25% seats for economically challenged children. Discrimination on the base on caste, creed and religion has been completely abolished through this Act.
The revolutionary development in this Act has been the quashing of the need for interviews of the children during their admission. Moreover, till the completion of the elementary school, no child can be deemed failed or held back in any class depending on his marks. Even board exams have been removed from the bracket of exams to be compulsorily passed by a student. Special training and classes for dropouts is another added feature in the Act’s benefits. Such camps are aimed at bringing the dropouts at par with the contemporary students.
To assist in this benevolent venture, the infrastructure and budget allotments have been increased by the government. The entire system of education has got a new facelift and still waits more in the future. The generous intention of the government is more evident from the fact that budgetary allotments for education have increased manifolds in recent times. In the year 2013, a hike of more than 7% has been announced for the education expenses compared to the previous year.
In spite of all such positives, there has also been much criticism from many sectors. The primary of them being considering with the quality of education, infringement of community rights and excluding children below 6 years. Experts have cited such technical faults to be result of hasty drafting of the Act. Proper consultations and suggestions of experienced Educational right groups have been overlooked overtly. These faults have somewhat maligned the positive nature of the Act.
The best part about the Act is that it finally shows a genuine initiate of the government to pull up the educational scenario of the nation and thinking about the children’s future. A state that shows great concern for its children’s education and makes education completely must be commended at all costs and it definitely augers well for the future.
Tags:
Children
Study
Government
Generation
Fundamental
Government Schools
