Lok Sabha Question No. 3868 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-19
Subject: RTE
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: CHANDU LAL SAHU, DILIP KUMAR MANSUKHLAL GANDHI, DEVJI MANSINGRAM PATEL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3868 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19 TH MARCH, 2018

## RTE

## †3868.         SHRI CHANDU LAL SAHU: SHRI DILIPKUMAR MANSUKHLAL GANDHI: SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that as per the report of the Right to Education Forum on the one hand the provisions  of  the  law  have  been  fully  implemented  in  merely  9.08  percent  schools,  10  percent schools  have  just  one  teacher,  half  of  the  schools  do  not  have  clean  drinking  water  or  separate toilets for girls and on the other hand more than two lakh Government schools have been closed due  to  shortage  of  students  during  the  last  few  years  after  the  implementation  of  the  Right  to Education Act;

(b) if so, whether the Government is looking for ways to privatise the public schools system; and

(c) the concrete steps taken/to be taken by the Government to implement the Right to Education Act, 2009 fully?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)

(a):        A report on 'Status of Implementation of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 (2016-17)' has been released by the Right to Education Forum, a nongovernmental organization. The Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development was not associated with this Report.

As per Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2015-16, the number of Government schools at elementary level has increased from 10.48 lakh in 2009-10 to 10.77 lakh in 2015-16 and 96.53% of Government Schools have drinking water facilities. With the construction/reconstruction of 4,17,796 toilets in 2,61,400 government elementary and secondary schools  within  one  year  upto  15.08.2015  under  Swachh  Vidyalaya  initiative,  all  Government schools  were  provided  access  to  gender  segregated  toilets  for  girls  and  boys.  Further,  RTE  Act 2009,  in  its  Schedule,  lays  down  the  Pupil  Teacher  Ratio  (PTR)  norms  for primary  and  upper primary schools at 30:1 and 35:1 respectively. As per UDISE 2015-16, the PTR at national level for primary and upper primary schools is 23:1 and 17:1 respectively which is better than the norms of the RTE Act 2009.

The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been designated as the vehicle to support States and UTs in implementing the provisions of RTE Act, 2009.  Since the inception of SSA in 2000-01, opening of 3.64 lakh new elementary schools, construction of 3.12 lakh school buildings and 18.87 lakh additional classrooms, 2.42 lakh drinking water facilities, 3.94 lakh boys toilets, 5.17 lakh separate girls' toilets, 1.40 lakh Children with Special Needs (CWSN) toilets and 19.33 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned to States and UTs. Out of this, 3.59 lakh elementary  schools  have  been  opened,  2.94  lakh  school  buildings  and  17.97  lakh  additional classrooms, 2.35 lakh drinking water facilities and 9.95 lakh school toilets have been constructed and 15.16 lakh teachers have been recruited as on 31 st December, 2017.

(b):       No, Madam. The RTE Act, 2009, effective from 1st April, 2010, mandates that every child of  the  age  of  six  to  fourteen  years  shall  have  the  right  to  free  and  compulsory  education  in  a neighbourhood school till the completion of his or her elementary education. All States and UTs, defined  as  the  'appropriate  Governments'  under  the  Act,  are  implementing  the  provisions  of  the RTE Act, 2009 through their respective state RTE Rules.

(c):      The Government of India has taken several initiatives to facilitate the implementation of the RTE Act and to ensure universalization of quality elementary education in the country. In order to focus on quality education, the Central RTE Rules have been amended on 20th February, 2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social  Science  up  to  the  elementary  stage  have,  accordingly,  been  finalized  and  shared  with  all States  and  UTs. These would serve as a guideline for States and UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning level.

A National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted on 13th November, 2017 through which  the  learning  levels  of  around  22  lakh  students  of  Classes  III,  V  and  VIII  from  1.10  lakh schools  across  700  districts  in  all  36  States  and  UTs  were  assessed.  This  competency  based assessment was based on the Learning Outcomes developed by the NCERT. District report cards (provisional) for NAS 2017 have been released by this Department and are available on MHRD website.  Through  NAS  it  is  for  the  first  time  that  the  teachers  have  a  tool  to  understand  what exactly the child should be learning in various classes, how to teach this through activities and how to measure and ensure that children have reached the required level.

The RTE Act, 2009 was amended in 2017 to ensure that all teachers acquire the minimum qualifications prescribed under the Act by 31st March 2019 to reinforce the Government's emphasis on  improvement  of  quality  of  elementary  education.  The  National  Institute  of  Open  schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode.

The Shagun portal has been launched to create a repository of best practices from the States and UTs and to enable online monitoring of implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 through the SSA programme.