Lok Sabha Question No. 2702 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-12
Subject: Implementation of Right to Education
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

## DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2702 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12 th  MARCH, 2018

## Implementation of Right to Education

## †2702.      SHRI SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that rate of admission in schools has increased in the wake of implementation of the Right to Education Act, 2009 in the country and if so, the details thereof; (b) whether it is also a fact that on account of lack of quality education in most of the Government schools,  parents  are  facing  many  problems  for  providing  education  to  their  children  in  private schools; (c)  whether  according  to  the  report  of  Non-Governmental  Organization  'Pratham'  most  of  the children upto 14 to 18 year age group are not even eligible for lower classes; (d) if so, the details thereof; (e) whether it is a fact that many teaching posts are lying vacant in the Government schools in most of  the  States  of  the  country  and  quality  education  is  not  being  provided  to  children  owing  to appointment of untrained/ineligible teaching staff on low salaries over there; and (f) if so, State/UT-wise details of assessment conducted and the measures taken by the Government in this regard?

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

(a):    Yes, Madam. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, 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.  The  Sarva  Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Programme has been designated as the vehicle for implementing the provisions of RTE Act, 2009. Since inception of SSA in 2001, there has been significant progress in achieving near universal enrolment. As per UDISE 2015-16, enrolment of children in elementary schools has increased from 18.78 crore in 2009-10 to 19.67 crore in 2015-16.

(b):     The RTE Act, 2009 lays down the duties of the appropriate Government and the local authority to provide  good  quality  elementary  education  conforming  to  norms  and  standards  and  to  ensure  that curriculum and courses of study are prescribed in a timely manner, and that teachers are trained. 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.

(c)  and  (d):     Achievement  surveys  are  released  in  the  Annual  Status  of  Education  Report  (ASER)  by 'Pratham'  -  a  non-governmental  organization.  It  is  a  household  survey  limited  to  rural  areas  of  the country. Some of the salient findings of the ASER-2017 report include inter-alia, that, overall, 86% of youth in the 14-18 age group are still within the formal education system, either in school or in college, 75% of children in the 14 to 18 age group can read basic text fluently in their own language. Further, 53% of all 14 year-olds in the sample can read English sentences. For 18 year-old youth, this figure is closer to 60%. Of those who can read English sentences, 79% can say the meaning of the sentence. Also, 76% of surveyed youth could count money correctly and 56% could add weights correctly in kilograms and for those with basic arithmetic skills this figure was close to 90% and 76%, respectively. However, the report points out that only 43% student are able to do a 3-digit by 1-digit division correctly.

The Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development was not associated with this survey.

(e):         The RTE Act 2009, in its Schedule, lays down the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) 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. As  on  31 st March  2017,  against  a  total  of  51.03  lakh  teacher  posts  sanctioned  in Government  schools,  42.03  lakh  teachers  are  in  position  across  all  States  and  UTs.  The  terms  and conditions of recruitment and service of teachers come under the purview of respective states/UTs.

(f):        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 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.  A  total  of 13,78,935 admissions of in-service untrained teachers have been confirmed for the programme.

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