Quality education is the crying need in rural Odisha

Pravin Patel, Human Rights Activist

Almost half of the population of Odisha is poor. Nobel laureate and renowned economist Dr. Amritya Sen has logically proved that root cause of poverty lies in lack of education. Even our Past President Dr. Abdul Kalam, emphasized Knowledge is Power and urgent steps required to educate the masses. Dr. Ambedkar also laid emphasis on education as an effective tool to combat social evils that exists in our caste based society. Planning commission of India also in its report has stated that the root cause of growing unrest in tribal areas lies in under development and poverty in rural tribal areas. State and Central governments are trying their best to address the problem with bullets, which has further aggravated the bad scenario to worst. High percentage of illiteracy in the tribal populated areas and very poor quality of education despite right to education is a fundamental right guaranteed under the provisions of Constitution of India is a matter of concern and cause of worry. As per a report, the number of illiterates in India is more than the total population of any country in the world except China and US. Policy makers curse poverty that forces young ones to quit study to earn livelihood to support the families. Girl child and children belonging to scheduled castes and tribes, farm workers and marginal farmers all have lower literacy rates, lower enrollment ratios and higher dropout rates at various levels. Constitutional Provisions: Article 45 of the Constitution of India was originally incorporated in chapter IV dealing with the Directive Principles of State Policy which provided that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all the children up to the age of 14 years within ten years. The realization of this provision remained elusive. In 1993, the Supreme Court in Unnikrishnan case interpreting Articles 21 and 45 of the Constitution held that the right to education is a fundamental right and children up to the

age of 14 years are entitled to free education and the State shall have no defense to deny the said right. Though the decision in Unnikrishnan case led to debate and filing of cases in the courts, the realization of right to education has remained unrealized. The Indian Parliament enacted the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 amending the Constitution thereby inserting Articles 21-A and 51-A (k) and amending Article 45 in the Constitution. Article 21-A directs the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. Article 51-A (k) casts a duty on every citizen who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years. As a follow up legislation in terms of Article 21-A of the Constitution of India, the Indian Parliament enacted Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and Government of India issued notification under Section 1(3) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 appointing the 1st day of April 2010 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force. The amended Article 45 provides that the State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has prepared Model Rules under RTE and sent the same to the States to frame and notify the Rules to enable the Act to function. In order to make sure those objectives with which the act has been enacted, it is very much important and necessary that the benefits of the RTE must reach to those for whom it is meant. The situation in rural areas of Odisha is bad and worst in tribal habitats. The objective of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, is to improve quality of education and its enjoyment by all children fully, equally and equitably. This speaks of strengthening the social fabric of Democracy; of provision of equal opportunities to all, of the belief in the values of equality, social justice, and democracy and the creation of a just and humane society only through inclusive education for all.

Cause of concern is to bring 0-6 years and 14 to 18 years of age groups who are left out of the purview of the RTE act. 0-6 years age group was constitutionally mandated by the original Article 45 of the Directive Principles and reconfirmed by the Supreme Court in 1993 through the Unnikrishnan judgment and also those 0-18 years of age group is the internationally agreed definition of the child as per the United Nations Convention of Child Rights to which India is a signatory. It is a challenge for the state authorities, how they deal with the situation to provide free quality education to poor in the age groups of 15-18 years. The right of the child to a formal (recognised) school is clearly stated in the Act in Section 3 and the full time nature of such school becomes more than apparent when this Section is read with the Schedule to the Act, which at serial No. 4 specifies 45 working hours for each teacher per week; which for a six day week works out to 7.5 hours per day, means each school will now be required to If each school remain open at least for a normal eight hour working day but we all know the realities. Teachers come and go at their will and have other priorities rather than to do their official duties. Another point of contention is non-academic tasks of teachers like elections, decennial census and disaster management. Mid day meal scheme is to attract children to school so that they can get education but by and large it has become a den of corruption. Schools do not open regularly on six days a weak. In most cases, students from class one to five are herded together in a single class room in the name of imparting education. It is any bodys guess, what type of education is imparted on those poor children that too by unqualified temporary Para-teachers. This has seriously widened the class and caste fault lines in schooling, pushing them in to a runaway spiral. The result is that once the mid day meal scheme is over for them, most of the students drop out of the primary school. In terms of the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the Government of Odisha is required to frame Rules. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has prepared Model Rules and sent the same to the States to frame and notify the Rules to enable the Act to function which are not in sight of the author. However, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Govt. of Orissa, School and Mass Education

Department, in a circular Letter No: 22655 /SME of 18-12-2010 addressed to all district Collectors has clarified admission in class I (or pre-primary class as the case may be) u/s 12 (1) of the RTE act in unaided and specified category schools, schools shall follow a system of random selection out of the application received from children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections for filling the pre determined number of seats in that Class, which should not be less than 25% of the strength of the class. It is also clarified that weaker section means a child belonging to such parents or guardians who are BPL Card holders. Similarly disadvantaged groups means Schedule Caste and

Schedule Tribe and also a child who is found without any home or any settled place or abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence and also a child who is found begging or who is either street child or a working child. A copy has been sent to all

concerned directorates and inspector of schools at state and district level. In Odisha, The Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) are educationally backward. The percentage of literacy among the STs and SCs is 37.37% and 55.53% as against the general literacy level of 63.08 % as per 2001 census. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan which is aimed at providing education opportunities to primary children in particular has failed to make any impressive impact except being in news for corrupt practices. Books meant for children are sold on Kg basis to Kabadis and while board that costs hardly Rs. 500 is purchased at Rs. 4000/- are some of the examples. Fact remains that drop out rates at the primary school level in Odisha is too high, despite state received a sum of Rs. 125068.15 lakhs from 2004-05 till 15-11-07 but even that amount could not be fully utilized as Rs.10223.33 lakhs remained unspent as on 31-03-2007. Under the circumstances, there is a need for public discussion with participation of all the stake holders to ensure that fundamental right of quality education to children in the age group of 6-14 years is respected in its true spirit for which the RTE act has been enacted. Pravin Patel. The author is a human rights activist. He can be contacted at tribalwelfare@gmail.com or janatavikasmanch@gmail.com