Centre to take UID route to monitor schools

The Human Resource Development Ministry will take the help of the Unique Identification Number (UID) to monitor whether every child is going to school.
Raising this issue in the Consultative Committee meeting of the ministry, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the government would be keen to maintain close cooperation with the recently set-up UID Authority as they would provide all school-going children and teachers with a unique number.
The Act
Making a presentation on the “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009,” the minister said the UID would enable the authorities to do a countrywide monitoring of schooling and educational outcomes. The Act is aimed at ensuring the right of a child to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till the completion of elementary education.
The Act also prescribed the minimum qualifications for teachers in elementary schools and the academic and infrastructure standards which schools were required to adhere to. Sibal stated that with 93 per cent of the schools in the country being government schools, the main purpose of the Act would be to improve the quality of the government school system.
The minister underlined that the provision in the Act of School Management Committees to have 50 per cent women would make the schools monitored and accountable. He said the Act would be notified after the sharing pattern of the finances, between the Centre and the states is decided.
While most of the MPs appreciated it, some of them appreheded problems in implementation.
“The actual implementation of the Act will face challenges, especially in terms of monitoring and accountability, retention of poor students, teacher quality and absenteeism, ability of states to finance the implementation of the Act and adequate infrastructure,” CPI member D Raja said.