Rajasthan government set to bring amendments to RTE Act

After amending state labour laws, Rajasthan is venturing to introduce changes to the Right To Education Act (RTE) 2009, inserting provisions for failing children and evaluating them on performance.

The Act currently has no provision to fail children up to class 5, but with cabinet approval for the changes, Rajasthan is all set to become the first state in the country to amend RTE.

The proposed amendments would also empower school education committees that would review and monitor teachers’ performance.

The government claimed that the amendments are aimed at improving the education standards.  “We have (approved the amendments) in view of the declining educational standards in the state,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said.

“So far, the RTE had no provisions to fail children up to class five, which was affecting the students’ performance since they were aware that they could not be failed,” the minister said, adding that schools post-amendment will evaluate and fail students who did not meet performance standards.

Standard of teachers

School education committees will be trusted with the monitoring of teachers’ standards, the minister said, noting that the amendments would be tabled in state Assembly and sent for Presidential assent.

The government last year introduced mandatory board exams for Class VII for schools affiliated to Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education .

The amendments are also important to strengthen Class VII board exams. Cabinet also decided to withdraw 60 ineffective laws and 180 related amendments.

 “The committee headed by the Chief Secretary felt about 60 laws and 180 amendments are impractical in the current context,” Rathore said.

The maximum withdrawal of ineffective laws will be from education, revenue and law departments.