Education is one of the most powerful tools for breaking the poverty cycle.  It is the only vehicle, which can bring equality to society.   But the poor quality of education has caused poor learning outcomes in our country and the poor learning outcome is pushing our children out of the education system. Ultimately, the drop-outs are forced to join child labour and the unorganised sector.

Movement for Peace and Justice for Welfare (MPJ) a public movement working for the betterment of the people of Maharashtra, organized a consultation meeting on the “Poor learning outcomes in school education on Saturday, 24^th September 2022 at Anjuman-I-Islam College in Mumbai. This event got an overwhelming response from all the stakeholders. People from the teaching community, civil society, academics, government and parents were present in large numbers.

Mr. Muhammad Anees gave a brief overview of the current situation of poor learning outcomes in school education. Prof. Sharad Jawadekar, a retired teacher from Pune University and a well-known education activist, Dr. Sandhya Mhatre, a researcher and education activist, Mr. Ashfaq Ahmad, Education Officer, Mr. Faheem Abdul Bari from All India Ideal Teachers Association, Mr. Syed Habib representing the Education department of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and members of All India Samajwadi Shikshan Haq Sabha were part of the panel of experts.

The panelists stressed the importance of increasing public spending on education and raising awareness among the community to take ownership and accountability to run and manage the schools.

Dr Kazim Malik announced MPJ’s plan to hold local-level consultation meetings on the issue at different locations in Maharashtra to engage all the stakeholders and aware them of the problems and challenges associated with school education.  

 

प्रो. शरद जावड़ेकर सभा को संबोधित करते हुए 

पुणे: देश में मुफ़्त और अनिवार्य बाल शिक्षा अधिकार क़ानून लागू होने के बावजूद प्राथमिक शिक्षा को लेकर अनेक समस्याएँ हैं. इसी मुद्दे पर आज यहाँ देश की प्रतिष्ठित जन आन्दोलन “मुव्ह्मेन्ट फ़ॉर पीस एंड जस्टिस फ़ॉर वेलफेयर (एमपीजे)  के द्वारा एक वर्कशाप का आयोजन किया गया.  सभा को संबोधित करते हुए एमपीजे के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष मुहम्मद सिराज ने कहा कि, किसी भी समाज और देश के विकास में शिक्षा की अहम भूमिका होती है. जिहालत की वजह से ग़रीबी, बीमारी और अशांति जैसी विभिन्न समस्याओं का जन्म होता है. किसी भी समाज में शिक्षा के बिना सार्थक तबदीली की कल्पना भी नहीं की जा सकती है. 

शिक्षा मानव जीवन का मूल आधार होता है. यही वजह है कि, शिक्षा हर व्यक्ति का मूल अधिकार माना जाता है. हमारे देश में भी अशिक्षा की वजह से बहुत सारी सामाजिक बीमारियों ने जन्म लिया है. लेकिन दुर्भाग्यवश हमारे देश में अभी तक शिक्षा को हर व्यक्ति का मूल अधिकार तस्लीम नहीं किया गया है. देश में वर्ष 2009 में मुफ़्त और अनिवार्य बाल शिक्षा अधिकार क़ानून बना, जिसने शिक्षा को 6 से 14 साल के बच्चों का मौलिक अधिकार बनाया. लेकिन इस क़ानून ने प्राथमिक शिक्षा की क्वालिटी को बेहतर बनाने में अब तक कोई भूमिका नहीं निभाई है. देश में प्राथमिक शिक्षा का स्तर बहुत गिर गया है, जो बहुत ही चिंता जनक है.

आर टी ई कृति समिति के अध्यक्ष प्रो. शरद जावड़ेकर ने इस अवसर पर कहा कि, ब्रिटेन में वर्ष 1832 में ही शिक्षा को हर नागरिक का मूल अधिकार घोषित कर दिया गया. लेकिन हमारे देश में वर्ष 2009 में मूल अधिकार तस्लीम किया गया, वह भी सिर्फ़ 8 वीं क्लास तक. इसका मतलब ये है कि, सरकार आठवीं क्लास तक बच्चों को पढ़ा कर सिर्फ़ दीहारी मज़दूर बनाना चाहती है. उन्होंने कहा कि शिक्षा केजी से पीजी तक फ्री होनी चाहिए.

 

सभा को संबोधित करते हुए शिक्षाविद प्रो. काजिम मलिक ने देश में प्राथमिक शिक्षा के गिरते हुए स्तर और ख़राब क्वालिटी पर चिंता व्यक्त करते हुए, शिक्षा के अधिकार क़ानून में स्कूल प्रबंधन समिति की भूमिका पर प्रकाश डाला. उन्होंने पालकों को स्कूल मैनेजमेंट कमिटी के बारे में मार्गदर्शन प्रदान करते हुए स्कूल के प्रबंधन में जन भागीदारी को सुनिश्चित करने का आव्हान किया. इस वर्कशॉप में विभिन्न सामाजिक संगठनों, पालकों और शिक्षाविदों की बड़ी तादाद मौजूद थी.

 

 

 

महाराष्ट्र सरकार द्वारा प्रदेश में शिक्षा के अधिकार के अंतर्गत समाज के कमजोर और वंचित वर्गों के स्टूडेंट्स के लिए 25% आरक्षित सीटों पर प्रवेश की प्रक्रिया 16 जनवरी 2017 को ही शुरू कर दी गयी थी, किन्तु अधिकांश अभिभावकों को प्रदेश के प्राइवेट स्कूलों में मुफ़्त शिक्षा प्राप्ति की सुविधा उपलब्ध होने की जानकारी ही नहीं है, जिसके चलते प्रदेश में आरक्षित सीटों के मुक़ाबले प्रवेश के लिए काफ़ी कम संख्या में आवेदन जमा किये गए हैं! आज यहाँ प्रेस को संबोधित करते हुए एम पी जे के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष मुहम्मद सिराज ने यह जानकारी दी! मूवमेंट फॉर पीस एंड जस्टिस फॉर वेलफेयर (एम पी जे), जो एक जनांदोलन है के द्वारा इस मुद्दे पर राज्यव्यापी जन-जागरण अभियान चलाया जा रहा है!

मुहम्मद सिराज ने कहा कि, जहाँ एक तरफ़ प्रशासनिक अकर्मण्यता के कारण तो दूसरी तरफ़ प्राइवेट स्कूल प्रबंधन द्वारा शिक्षा के अधिकार क़ानून के तहत ग़रीब एवं वंचित वर्ग के लोगों को अशिक्षा के अन्धकार से बाहर निकालने के लिए किये गए उपायों का सही ढंग से पालन नहीं किए जाने से 25% आरक्षित सीटों का वांछित लाभ लक्षित समूह तक नहीं पहुँच पा रहा है! उन्हों ने कहा कि, प्रवेश प्रक्रिया शुरू होने के बाद ही ऑनलाइन एडमिशन पोर्टल के ठीक ढंग से काम नहीं करने तथा कई स्कूलों द्वारा रजिस्ट्रेशन नहीं कराने का मामला सामने आया था,जिसकी जानकारी हमने एक मेमोरेंडम द्वारा शिक्षा मंत्रालय को दे दी थी! इतना ही नहीं, कई स्कूलों ने उपलब्ध सीटों की संख्या भी कम दिखाई है!

गौर तलब है कि, शिक्षा के अधिकार अधिनियम के अंतर्गत बने नियमानुसार शिक्षा अधिकारीयों पर लक्षित समूह को इस सुविधा  के सम्बन्ध में जागृत करने और लक्षित समूह के बच्चों को प्रवेश के लिए चिन्हित करने की ज़िम्मेदारी सौंपी गयी है! किन्तु शिक्षा  अधिकारीयों द्वारा न तो कोई जनजागरण अभियान चलाया गया और न ही प्रवेश के पात्र बच्चों की पहचान करने के लिए सर्वे किया गया!

एम पी जे के महासचिव अफसर उस्मानी ने कहा कि, जब से यह क़ानून लागू हुआ है, समाज का एक वर्ग अमली तौर पर इसे लागू होने में बाधा उत्पन्न करता नज़र आ रहा है! इस क़ानूनी प्रावधान को अदालत में भी चुनौती दी गयी और इस का लाभ वंचितों तक नहीं पहुंचे इसके लिए संस्थागत तंत्र काम कर रहा है! उन्हों ने प्रदेश सरकार से एडमिशन के लिए आवेदन जमा करने की तिथि को बढ़ाने के साथ-साथ उन प्राइवेट स्कूलों के ख़िलाफ़ कार्रवाई की मांग की, जिन्हों ने ख़ुद को इस एडमिशन प्रोसेस से बाहर रखा! इसके साथ ही सही ढंग से जन-जागरण के लिए काम करने की भी मांग की!

“All persons should be educated, so we could have peace in the world”.

This is a very famous quote of John Amos Comenius, who is considered as a father of education. It is a fact that, peace can’t be established unless certain rights are not guaranteed to all of its citizen and definitely education is one of the most powerful tools, as this is the foundation of good citizenship and most vital ingredient for the development of human resources.

 Undoubtedly, a child of today is a leader of tomorrow and the real wealth of a nation is not so much in it’s of natural resources like metals, minerals and oils etc; but it lies more absolutely in the kind and quality of its children. It is they who are the shapers of a nation’s tomorrow. But, it is our responsibility today, to shape the future of our children, who are most precious, valuable, and fragile resource for the future.  We believe that, as a future leader every child has the right to be encouraged and nurtured emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Their physical needs must be adequately met, including nutrition, housing, and medical care.   There are several basic rights that a child deserves to get, but here we are going to discuss the right of education only.  As we know that proper education is the basic ingredient to produce a good citizen and it is also a fact that, receiving a good education is every child’s basic right. It is education that provides competence and empowers children to be self-sufficient. Needless to say that education plays vital role in the human capital formation.

Who is responsible for providing the education: In India, the Central and state governments are responsible for providing the school education to all school-age children. By the Constitutional Amendment of 1976 education was included in the Concurrent List, which means that both the Centre and the State have jurisdiction over making legislative provisions on the subject and in 2002 the Constitution was Amended to include the Article 21A in the Indian constitution, which declares  Education a fundamental Right. Now education is a fundamental right and its enforcement would provide us a unique opportunity to build up a mission encompassing all the discourses to fulfill our goal of universal elementary education. The right to education goes further than free and compulsory education to incorporate quality education for all.

This 86^th amendment of the constitution of India, however, necessitated for a legislation to explain the mode of implementation of the fundamental right of education. Hence, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 came into existence, which was implemented on 1^st April, 2010 and it is popularly known as right to education or RTE and it is legally enforceable duty of the government to provide free and compulsory education in a neighborhood school.

The RTE Act 2009 envisages that the education is a fundamental right of every child who is between 6 and 14 years of age. This legal enactment echoes a right-based approach to the education of our children. The sole purpose behind this right-based approach is to maximize the development of children, so that they become citizens who are aware of their other rights, and come to know how to demand these rights. This Act serves as a building block to ensure that every child has his or her right (as an entitlement) to get a quality elementary education. The RTE Act focuses on the right of access to education.  The most noteworthy provision in the RTE Act is the one that addresses this crucial right of access to free compulsory and quality education up to class eight for all children. This right extends to all children irrespective of gender, religion, class, caste and includes those with physical and other disabilities. Since, it is a fundamental right; it is State’s duty to ensure that no child remains out of school.

The RTE Act has the following major provisions:

• Every child between the ages of six to fourteen years shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school, till completion of elementary education.
• The Act clarifies that ‘compulsory education’ means obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group.
• The Act also clarifies that ‘free education’ means, no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. In other words, there is no direct (school fees) or indirect cost (uniforms, textbooks, mid-day meals, transportation) to be borne by the child or the parents to obtain elementary education. The government will provide schooling free-of-cost until a child's elementary education is completed.
• Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted to any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age.
• This act mandates that, the children are entitled to get quality education.
• For carrying out the provisions of this Act, the appropriate government and local authority shall establish a school, if it is not established, within the given area, within a period of three years, from the commencement of this Act.
• The Central and the State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out the provisions of this Act.
•  This act also calls for a fixed student-teacher ratio.
•  School teachers will need adequate professional degree within five years or else will lose job. 
•  School infrastructure (where there is problem) to be improved in three years, else recognition cancelled.
•  Provides for 25 percent reservation for economically weaker section and disadvantaged communities in admission to Class one in all private schools.
•  It provides for appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.
•  It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition.
• It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, and which would ensure the all-round development of the child, building on the child’s knowledge, potentiality and talent and making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child friendly and child centred learning.  

A very large number of our children never get admitted to a school, and they do not complete even elementary education due to various socio-economic reasons like, migration, extreme poverty, homelessness of the family, children living or working in urban slums, in streets, on railway platforms or construction sites, working as domestic workers, child labourers, tending cattle, working in dhabas, mechanic shops, and rag pickers and as shoe shine boys etc.

The RTE rules of the state of Maharashtra defines “Out-of-school child” as a child of the age of 6 to 14 years who has either never been admitted to a school or who, having been admitted, has not completed elementary education, and it shall include a student of elementary school being absent for more than a month continuously. Such children are termed as “Children with special needs”.

The historical “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009” (RTE) promises to  fulfill the aspirations and dreams of all such children, who remained out of school or could not complete elementary education due to various reasons. The RTE Act specifically provides opportunity for engage all such out-of-school children in the age appropriate classes and continues support to them till the completion of elementary stage for the achievement of basic goals.

With a view to bringing all never enrolled and drop-out children within the ambit of elementary education, a special provision has been introduced in Chapter II Para 4 of RTE Act. It reads, “Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted in any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age.”

This Act provides to enroll all the children and has held the local authority responsible to identify, every year, by means of a survey, to be conducted by an officer notified by the State Government in this behalf, such children who are out of school, and shall admit them to age appropriate class.

It shall, according to the need, organize the special training of “out of school” in the following manner, namely:

 (a) the special training shall be based on specially designed, age appropriate learning tools and materials, approved by the academic authority specified under section 29 of the Act;

(b) such a training shall be provided in the classes held on the premises of the school, or through the classes organized as authorized bridge courses in safe residential facility, at time other than normal school hours;

 (c) such training shall be imparted preferably by teachers working in the school, or by teachers appointed specially for that purpose

(d) the State Council of Educational Research & Training shall lay down the time duration for such training programme;

(e) After admitting such a child to the age-appropriate class and during the special training and after he/she completes the special training, the teachers shall give him/her, the special attention required to help him/her integrate with the class, both academically and emotionally. 

As we know that the RTE Act has made it very clear that, every child of the nation is entitled to get free, compulsory and quality education. The aim of the Act is not to simply increase the rate of literacy, but to produce well educated children ready to take the mantle of nation building. So, the quality education being the most challenging component of this legal enactment demands to create a favourable and congenial learning space, where the overall development of children may took place.  The basic idea behind this provision is unless a suitable environment is not provided to a learner; he/she won’t be able to produce the desired result. Hence, the proper seating arrangement to sanitation, adequate number of teachers and other basic facilities are necessary.  

The right to education Act has set a standard of minimum infrastructure for primary schools in the country for the first time ever. It is now the law that every school must have a class teacher for every class, drinking water, toilets and sports facilities etc. These are known as minimum infrastructure norms and it is also known as ten norms. These norms are regulations that define the infrastructural conditions required to make a school a school. These minimum standards lay down the basic level of infrastructure that every school must meet in order to function properly and provide student friendly environment.

Every School whether it is government run or a private, has to meet these ten basic requirements.

The ten (10) basic parameters to ensure the quality of education are here as under:

1.      Building,

2.      Drinking water,

3.      Separate toilets for girls and boys,

4.      1 teacher for 30 pupils (1 for 35 in Upper primary)/ 1 class per teacher /200 working days per year,

5.      Boundary wall,

6.      Playground,

7.      Shed for kitchen,

8.      Ramp (for the disabled)

9.      Office-cum-store and

10.  Teacher headroom.

The aforementioned norms are required to ensure the availability of good learning environment, but it is a matter of great concern that a large number of schools fail to comply with RTE norms.  The UNICEF report said that many schools in the state did not have even five of the 10 provisions. It is also a fact that, large number of schools is with the government and local bodies in the state.

Interestingly, about 1.62 crore children have been enrolled in the elementary schools across Maharashtra of which 63.3 lakh are studying in the government managed schools, 97 lakh in private institutes and 77,700 in the schools still unrecognized.

According to a report on the infrastructure in schools released in August 2013 only 7,355 of the 67,718 government schools in the state had fulfilled all 10 infrastructure indicators laid down by the act. As many as 3,711 schools did not meet even half the norms.

The latest District Information System of Education (DISE: 2013-14) survey conducted by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Maharashtra) reveals that only 23,099 out of 1.05 lakh elementary schools (22%) are able to qualify on 10 indicators mandated under the Act.

In this regard, the President of BMC Teachers Association said that, "The RTE Act came into effect in 2010. Even after four years, neither Maharashtra nor other states have implemented it effectively. The state lacks the will power to crack down on private managements. We have approached the Bombay high court in this regard so that the court can compel the government to act seriously towards the overall development of the children."

The School Management Committee (SMC) has a very critical role in achieving the goals of RTE. It has remarkable potential to transform the present system of education to more result oriented. In fact, this is a vital component of our primary education system and a big step to democratize the education process in the country and it delegates the onus of school governance to the grass root levels. Really, it is a big opportunity for the parents to nurture the future of their children by themselves and provide them remarkable powers to improve the efficiency of a school and ensure a better quality of education for their children. The RTE Act has made a provision for all government, government aided and special category schools to constitute an SMC under article 21 of the RTE Act. The private unaided schools have also a provision of the SMC.

The School Management Committee is to be constituted in the area limit of the school, within three months from the date of commencement of the new academic year. It is very important to know that, now the School management Committee is not merely a monitoring body, but the RTE Act has entrusted the responsibility to the community to manage the affairs of school.

Composition:

• Seventy five per cent of the strength of the School Management Committee shall be from amongst parents or guardians of children. They shall be selected or elected in a meeting of parents of the school.  

                                     

• 50 per cent of members of such committee shall be women. 

• Parents of children of the weaker and deprived sections so also the parents of children with three different levels (high, medium and low) of achievements shall be represented adequately. 

• The remaining twenty-five per cent of the strength of the School Management Committee shall be formed amongst elected members of Local Authorities, members of management, head teachers or senior teachers, teachers, educationists or child development experts.

• Two students of which at least one is girl shall be co-opted as members. Such co-opted members shall have no voting rights. 

• The Chairperson of school Management Committee shall be elected from among the parents in case of schools managed by Government or Local Authority. In case of aided schools representative of the management shall be the chairperson.

• The Head Teacher of the school or where the school does not have a Head Teacher, the senior most teacher of the school, shall be ex-officio Member-secretary of the School Management Committee and will carry out all election-related work. He or She shall also be responsible for conducting the monthly meetings of the School Management Committee.

Functions:

• Making School Development Plan (SDP) as per the RTE guidelines/norms

• Management of school

• Supervising and supporting implementation of SDP

• Supervision/monitoring of finance, management, academic progress, distribution of entitlements & other functions

• Ensuring accountability and transparency in the system through the social audit mechanism

• Keeping proper accounts of the fund available and sharing its deployment and utilization with the ‘Aam Sabha’

• Creating and maintaining an educational database

• Coordinating with the local authority, generating funds from other sources for development of schools

• Monitoring academic progress of the children

• Instituting social audit mechanism and processes to bring transparency in the system and ensure universal participation 

• Communicate in simple and creative ways to the population in the neighbourhood of the school, the rights of the child as enunciated in the Act; as also the duties of the State Government, local authority, school, parent and guardian; 

• monitor that teachers are not burdened with non academic duties other than those specified in section 27; 

• ensure the enrollment and continued attendance of all the children from the neighbourhood in the school; 

• bring to the notice of the Local Authority any deviation from the rights of the child, in particular mental and physical harassment of children, denial of admission, and timely provision of free entitlements;

• monitor the identification and enrollment of disabled children, and the availability of learning materials and other facilities and ensure their participation in, and completion of elementary education; 

• monitor the implementation of the Mid-Day Meal and other Government schemes in the school; 

• cause to prepare an annual account of receipts and expenditure of the school;

• take children’s opinion through the report of Bal Panchayats formed in the school.

School Development Plan:

• It will be a three year plan estimating student strength, teacher requirement under the prescribed PTR, additional infrastructural, financial requirements and so on. The requirement is that the combined school development plans of a local authority will identify requirements in a bottom up decentralized manner, for each panchayat, rather than in a top down centralized manner, as is the common practice. 

There are two tier grievance redressal mechanisms available in the state of Maharashtra, as mandated by the RTE Act, 2009. These are local grievance redressal authority, which consists of SMC/ local authority and the Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.

The RTE Act provides constitution of the Commission for the Protection of Child Rights at national level and as well as state level. One of the major functions of the Commission is to inquire into complaints of   violations of the child rights. So, education being a child right comes under the purview of the Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.

Offences or violations	First Authority  to be approached to make Complaint	Second Authority/Agency	Remarks
Any Grievance relating to child under RTE Act (Section -32)	The School Management Committee constituted under section 21 of the RTE Act 2009, is the first level of grievance redressal system. The parents aggrieved by any action or deeds of teachers, they can lodge their complaints to the school management committee first. (Sec- 21) They can file the complaints to the local authority (Gram Panchayat/ Municipal corporation/ Municipal council/ Ward council/ Nagar Panchayat, as the case may be) also. The said authority must decide the matter within three months.	If the grievances are not redressed at SMC or any person aggrieved by the decision of local grievance redressal authority may file an appeal to the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) and National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) subsequently. Appeals will be decided by the SCPCR/REPA.   SCPCR- Sec- 31 NCPCR- Sec.-31 Email (SCPCR): mscpcr@gmail.com Email (NCPCR): ncpcr.india@gmail.com	Commission for the Protection of Child Rights is a quasi judicial body having powers to summon, investigate and recommend the cases to the courts.