Teachers' shortage haunts RTE

Only 32 per cent complaints against violations of Act dealt with

 It has been three years since it came into being and promised free and compulsory education to all children in the age bracket of six to 14 years.

Redressing violations of the Right to Education Act across the country has been apparently poor, a fact ascribed by the chief monitoring body to teacher shortage and lack of educational infrastructure.

An RTI reply reveals that till date only 32 per cent cases of violation have been dealt with. According to the RTI reply, of the 3,632 complaints received over the last three years, the national commission for protection of child rights, the chief monitoring body for the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, has been able to act on just 1,191 cases.

In other words, 68 per cent of the cases remain unacted. RTI activist Rashmi Gupta, who had sought the information, said the figures are disheartening, to say the least.

A different RTI query filed by Gupta added that the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has received 557 complaints of RTE violations in the last three years, of which 116 have been disposed of — a disposal rate of 21 per cent.

“Under sections 27 and 28 of the RTE Act, these commissions (state commissions and the NCPCR) are to monitor and redress violations of the Act.

The RTI data shows the lack of efficacy on the part of the commissions in redressing grievances. So where do parents and guardians go if a child’s right to education is violated?” Gupta said.

“Hence it is important that the accountability (of the commissions) is fixed,” she added.
 NCPCR received 970 complaints from Delhi over the last three years. Only 235 have been disposed of until now. Similarly, of the 842 complaints received from Andhra Pradesh, only 44 have been disposed of.

In the case of Uttar Pradesh, 83 of the 179 complaints have been disposed of and in the case of Maharashtra, 108 of 150 have been disposed of. The RTI said, “Infrastructure, corporal punishment, denial of admission, denial of entitlements, pupil-teacher ratio, and detention are the major issues regarding which complaints were made.”

NCPCR chairperson Shantha Sinha has a different take on the figures revealed by the RTI reply. “Every complaint that has come to us has been disposed of. We don’t have any case pending,” said Sinha.

“There has been a misunderstanding. What the RTI reply meant by disposal was closing down of a case. It is true that a little over 30 per cent of the complaints, or cases have been closed down, and that is because we don’t close a case until we are satisfied with the action taken,” added Sinha.

“Sinha said that the biggest challenge has been addressing the shortage of qualified teachers,” she said. “Shortage of trained teachers remains a problem. Recruitment of teachers is still in process. There are still para-teachers and Shiksha Mitras.

Infrastructure is also a challenge, like toilets and clean drinking water in all schools.”  
“Things are not becoming worse, but progress is very slow,” she added.

She said since the Act’s implementation, awareness among parents about their child’s education has increased, and so has the enrolment rate in schools.

The recently released Annual Status of Education Report raised questions about the quality of education.

“You can’t look at quality of education in isolation, because to ensure quality, other factors have to be considered, like good teachers. A lot of work is still to be done, and the field of education needs more investment,” Sinha said.