RTE WATCH Skip to contentHOME ABOUT US IN DEPTH DOCUMENTS & DOWNLOADS POLICIES & ENACTMENTS STATE RULES LITIGATION EFFORTS GUIDELINES & RECOMMENDATIONSREPORTS & DOCUMENTS ←Older postsRTE: a master strokeBY DOLASHREE MYSOOR POSTED ON JUNE 9, 2013 „Talk‟, a Bangalore- based magazine recently feature d a story on the RTE entitled “Is this a new dawn for kids” (Read more). The article consists of interviews of various stakeholders and experts. The article begins with the nature of RTE implementation in the government schools of K. R. Puram which lack basic amenities and the distance from homes. The plight of government schools is leading parents to consider admitting their children in low-cost private schools which may not be the best option. However, parents are driven by factors such as social mobility, good education and English- medium to consider low cost private schools for their children. The author explores these sentiments of parents who are opting for the city‟s low-cost private schools despite the affordability factor. The author quotes Professor Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Azim Premji University) on the 25% reservation mandate. According to him this move is a „master stroke‟ as it enables enables children to grow up in a safe environment interacting with each other. He
considers this an imperative to the development of a new social order which breaks
away from our traditional „hierarchical, feudal and violent‟ society.
The article throws light on the corrupt practices which hinder proper implementation of
the RTE Act. The lower level bureaucrats have been widely accused of collecting bribes
to issue income and caste certificates which are necessary for admitting children under
the RTE quota. The author captures the problems with the high income limit in
Karnataka which enables the creamy layer to benefit from the reservation scheme
under the RTE Act. Some beneficiaries under this scheme revealed that the reservation
policy „liberates‟ them from the clutches of money -lenders to educate their
children. Also, the education officials are not in a position to differentiate between the
urban and rural schools when it comes to reimbursements. Mr. Palakshiah, a consultant
at the RTE cell in Bangalore describes the need for a reimbursement sum that is state- wide. According to him, a system of gradation in the reimbursement scheme will result
in another form of inequality and more people flocking to the city instead of accessing
schools in their neighbourhood.
One of the major criticisms against the RTE Act was the impact of the reservation
scheme of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. While schools may be willing to
accommodate disadvantaged children, one concern was the impact of such integration
on the children so admitted. Some private school administrators believe in the benefits
of the reservation scheme. School administrators have also pointed out the need to
sensitize parents of fee-paying children in elite schools towards children admitted under
the RTE quota. School administrators of the city‟s elite international schools which
admitted children under the RTE quota describe the integration process as smooth. The
article raises questions about teachers showing the same commitment towards the
intellectual development of children admitted under the quota.
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Madras HC frees Pvt. unaided schools fromthe clutches of fee regulation on co-curricular activities
Recently, the Madras High Court held that private schools charging fees for extra-
curricular activities before and after school hours does not fall under the ambit of fee
regulation (read more). The Court held that schools are free to charge fees for extra-curricular activities which are conducted before or after school hours. A bench
comprising Justice R Banumathi and Justice K Ravichandrabaabu held that if these
activities are wholly unconnected with academic lives of children, then the space for
state regulation of fees cannot exist. In effect, this judgment has restricted the state‟s
capacity to regulate fees in private schools to those activities which form a part of the
curriculum and study [ W.P. 12299 of 2012].
The Bench held that such charges do not constitute “Fee” under the Tamil Nadu Schools
(Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 as these activities are outside the activities
conducted during regular school hours. The enactment defines “fee” as “any amount, by
whatever name called, collected directly or indirectly by a school for admission of a
pupil to any standard or course of study” [Section 2 (e)]. According to the parents
association submitted that the school had not levied any such charges until July 28,
2011. However, after the notification of the fee structure from Fee Regulation
Committee, the school made co-curricular activities optional upon charging fees. The
counter submitted by the parents‟ association claimed that this was a discriminatory
practice. The school (Kavi Bharati Vidyalaya) denied the allegations and submitted thatthe cost of such activities was reasonable. An inspection report by the CBSE supported
the school‟s claim in this case stating that the charges were proportionate to the facilities
provided by the school. Rejecting the Advocate-General‟s submission that any charges
levied by the school would fall under the purview of „fee‟ as defined under the Act, the
Bench held that the charges levied by the school were reasonable considering the
facilities provided by the school.
The Bench observed that the purpose of the Committee was to ensure that schools do
not charge exorbitant amounts under the garb of „extra-curricular activities‟. It is
interesting to note that the Bench has not made any observations on the effects of its
judgment on children admitted under the RTE quota. As per the CBSE affiliation rules,
schools must provide at least two extra-curricular activities as a part of the regular
course of study. Second, as per the judgment, schools are allowed to charge fees for
extra-curricular activities which are conducted before and after school hours. What is
the fate of children admitted under the RTE quota in such a scenario? The Tamil Nadu
RTE Rules state that children under the quota shall be provided books, uniforms and
writing material and physical access to all school facilities without discrimination. Does
the RTE Act allow for fostering talent as an entitlement?
**We are unable to upload the judgment due to some technical issues. The judgment is
available on the Madras High Court website. Please use the following case number to
access the judgement- W.P. No. 12299 of 2012.
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Putting Ratios Into Practice BY MIHIKA TEWARI POSTED ON MAY 24, 2013
The schedule at the end of the RTE specifies rules regarding issues such as pupil-teacher
ratio (PTR) and classroom- teacher ratio (CTR) which are crucial given the problem of
overcrowded classrooms and the lack of teachers.
The general debate around this issue has focused on the issues of implementation of the
PTR and how it affects teachers. As reported, teachers feel threatened by this feature of
the RTE as many fear losing their jobs. However, what is often not talked about is the
lack of clarity in the schedule. The norms and standards are not looked at holistically,
but as separate issues. This leads to some of the requirements clashing and makes
monitoring difficult.
What do the rules regarding PTR and CTR state?
Firstly there are a different set of rules for classes 1 to 5 and another for classes 6 to 8.
For the former, PTR doesn‟t apply unless there are more than 200 children. However, if you have 60 children in a class you must have 2 teachers, for 90 you must have 3 and so
on.
The rules for class 6 to class 8 state there should be „at least one teacher for every 35
children‟. It also states that there should be „at least one teacher each for – i) science and
mathematics, ii) social studies iii) languages‟. Where schools have more than 100
students they must also have part-time teachers for Art and Sports etc. The rules for the
school building declare that there should be „at least one class room for every teacher‟
making CTR 1:1.
At first glance these rules seem simple and clear enough, however, when looking at a
potential monitoring framework or implementation guidelines, the formulation of these
rules raise some questions:
For classes 1 to 5, who have less than 200 students, how are the students
distributed among classes?
The schedule does not address this. So in reality, there could be a class of 60 with twoteachers, but one class could have 45 students and the other 15 and would still qualify as
“compliant”.
For classes 6 to 8, if the pupil-teacher ratio is supposed to be 1:35, then
where do you factor in the extra subject teachers and part-time teachers in
the ratio?
This is not a problem in itself, but the issue of CTR makes this problematic and is
discussed below.
A school, could, in fact have a 1:35 teacher-student ratio and could also have extra
teachers for subjects. This would make the school PTR compliant. However, this same
school may not have a classroom for these extra-subject teachers and would therefore
not live up to the „every teacher must have a classroom‟ rule making it CTR non-
compliant. When creating a simple compliance monitoring framework this discrepancy
might make the school appear to be non-compliant.
The reverse could happen in a second scenario. Schools that meet the classroom per
teacher rule could get away from having to provide extra-subject teachers because they
meet the required CTR and PTR.
In effect, the only way a school could meet both PTR and CTR (for classes 6 to 8) is if it
had a 1:35 teacher-student ratio and if every extra-subject teacher had his/her own
classroom. While this is something that schools might aspire to, it‟s unlikely that the
majority of schools would have these resources. A basic PTR or CTR check (dividing
number of students by number of teachers and dividing number of classrooms by
number of teachers) is not enough to assess if the school is compliant in these respects.
These shades of grey are not just present in the CTR and PTR issue but with most of the
schedule attached to the RTE; for example the number of working days and hours of
teachers (also detailed in the schedule).
In the effort to make schools accountable, the over complication of rules has
inadvertently created loopholes.
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Independence of the NCPCR- A fallacy? BY DOLASHREE MYSOOR POSTED ON MA Y 3 , 2013
A recent interview by Dhir Jhingran (former national coordinator of the RTE Division,
NCPCR) in Governance Now reveals that the National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (NCPCR) set up under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act,
2005 (CPCR Act) and the monitoring authority under the RTE Act, 2009 is a rather
toothless establishment. This independent authority was established under a separate
statute to monitor the implementation of child rights in India. He criticized the
stronghold that the Ministry of Women and Child Development has over the NCPCR.
The fact that this statutory authority was established to perform a particular role, but is
treated like a subordinate office of a ministry makes one wonder about the necessity of
such an authority. However, the fact that the HRD ministry funds and supervises RTE
work in the NCPCR does not seem to be of much help to those working in the RTE
Division. Dhir Jhingran expresses his frustration over internal politics and plans to
sabotage work taken up by some; he calls to question the commitment of theorganisation to work towards achieving the targets set forth under the RTE Act.
The trend of spending less on children and programmes related to children is not new to
India (read more). Much like the Indian judiciary , the funds to the NCPCR is controlled
by our ruling elite. Financially speaking, neither of these institutions are free from
political control. Further, the funding, expenditure and recruitment patterns of the
NCPCR are subject to political will. An example of such pervasive state control may be
found in the Comptroller and Auditor General Reports on the NCPCR. From 2006 to
2008 the NCPCR was barely allowed to spend up to Rs 5.4 Crores on its activities (read
more). In 2008-2009 the NCPCR was granted a sum of Rs 5.4 Crores. The recruitment
pattern also seems strange. The fact that many members of the commission are
recruited as consultants and not permanent staff makes one wonder if this a system that
is bound to fail even on the human resource front.
A close examination of the powers and functions of the NCPCR reveals that the
establishment has insufficient powers to influence any change in the way the issue of
child rights is dealt with in India. The CPCR Act vests in the NCPCR the powers of
making recommendation on implementation of child rights, making recommendation of compensation to victims, conducting inquiry into violations of child rights and
approaching the courts for justice. The RTE Act states that the NCPCR at the national
level and the SCPCRs at the state level shall be the monitoring and grievance redressal
bodies. It is important to note that the functions of the NCPCR under the RTE Act and
the CPCR Act are not very different. If any complaints are taken up by the child rights
commissions, they may merely make recommendations (which may or may not be
considered by the ruling elite) or approach courts (which people are apprehensive
about) on how to resolve the grievance. Clearly, they do not have the power to act upon
such complaints.
Another example of the toothless nature of its establishment is the NCPCR‟s guidelines
on elimination of corporal punishment. Although the RTE Act prohibits the use of
corporal punishment, mental harassment or discrimination in schools, the fact that the
child rights commissions cannot do much about violation of these guidelines describes
the limitations placed upon these institutions. The guidelines are not binding on states,
provided states specifically adopt them. There are only about 16 states which have
adopted the guidelines, therefore the guidelines are binding only on these 16 states(readmore). This is despite the fact the guidelines provide for a comprehensive grievance
redressal mechanism for children and parents on the issue of corporal punishment and
mental harassment. If implemented properly, they would call to question every
authority including the magistrates and the police officers who will need to be involved
if corporal punishment and mental harassment are recognized as child abuse.
There have been instances to show that state or private person accountability is not
brought to question when they ignore the Commission‟s interventions (read more). A
close examination of the workings of the child rights commissions would make one
wonder if Dhir Jhingran is right when he says “we create institutions and do not invest
in them and weaken them on purpose.” Where is the independence of this independent
child rights protection authority? More importantly, what do we mean by
an independent monitoring authority?
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Govt. school children buy their own answer
scripts: RTE? CCE? BY DOLASHREE MYSOOR POSTED ON A P R I L 23 , 2013
A state‟s apathy towards basic education is evident when it fails to provide answer
scripts to students to take their annual examination staring May 7 because it has not
budgeted for it (read more)! Inadequate budgeting has lead to a paucity of funds for
government schools to carry out examinations. While children bring their own answer
scripts, teachers are expected write questions on the blackboard. Some teachers are
spending out of their own pockets to conduct the annual examinations. As per theprovisions of the RTE Act all government schools are supposed to provide free and
compulsory education to all children between the ages of 6 and 14 years. Free education
would include the provision of educational material such as text-books, workbooks,
stationery and the like which would include materials required for conducting
examinations. The intention behind providing free education is to ensure that the
financial barriers which prevent children from accessing education such as school fees
and costs of books and stationery are removed.
It is difficult to decide whether the failure to budget for examinations in the state
education budget or the statements of education officers is more baffling. As per the
RTE Act, children are supposed to be evaluated in a continuous manner so as to assure
learning outcomes. This is known as the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
(CCE) framework. Therefore, expecting children to answer an entire year‟s syllabus in
one single annual examination would not necessarily fall within the purview of the CCE
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