COMMENTARY
Economic & Political Weekly EPW JANUARY 31, 2015 vol l no 5
25
RTE and Marginal CommunitiesA Perspective from the Field
Bibhuti Bhushan Malik
This article highlights the educational conditions of
marginalised communities in the context of the Right to Education
Act in terms of educational status, opportunity and access to
education. Further, a modest attempt is made to encapsulate the
gaps in implementing the RTE.
The role of education in facilitating social and economic
progress or development is understood and recognised. Education
helps improve functional and analytical abilities and opens up
opportunities for individuals and groups, and enables access to the
labour market, providing livelihood to people. Education is not a
mere tool to enhance effi ciency, but an effective mechanism to
augur democratic partici-pation in social life. Hence, education is
a dynamic and powerful force to usher in social and economic
empowerment; but its effectiveness depends on its spread,
utilisation, and social circum-stances. In this direction, one
exemplary effort is the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act of 2009 (RTE), which came into effect after many
drafts. The Act seems to have an inclu-sive character, which seeks
to raise the educational standards of marginalised communities, and
to be an instrument for any child to demand his/her basic
entitlement. Yet, a close look at provi-sions and their
implementation reveals disconcerting features.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest per-centage of dalits, Other
Backward Classes (OBCs), and minority popula-tions. The RTE Act is
being implemen-ted since the last few years. In order to understand
issues concerning the RTE a study has been undertaken in Lucknow
district. Tables 1 and 2 (p 26) give a snapshot of Uttar Pradesh
and Lucknow district.
Methodology
Under the aegis of Sashakta Bachapan of Poorest Areas Civil
Society (PACS) Vigyan Foundation advocates the proper
imple-mentation of the RTE Act in Lucknow dis-trict. The foundation
works in 48 slums and 32 villages of the district. These 48 slums
are scattered in 16 municipal wards, and 32 villages are in 23 gram
panchayats and two blocks such as Chinhat and Bukshi ka Talab.
Schoolgoing children and parents constitute the respondent unit.
From a total of 16 sites, 80 respondents (fi ve from each
slum/village) were purpo-sively selected. Both male and female
students and their parents were selected.
The Truth of RTE
Community survey revealed that the levels of awareness about RTE
were quite deplorable. None of the members knew about this
constitutional pro-vision which guarantees children their right to
education. However, some
Bibhuti Bhushan Malik ([email protected]) is with the
Department of Sociology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,
Lucknow.
COMMENTARY
JANUARY 31, 2015 vol l no 5 EPW Economic & Political
Weekly26
Table 1: Profile of Uttar Pradesh
Area 2,40,928 sq km
Population (Census 2011) 19,98,12,341
Male 10,44,80,510
Female 95,53,31,831
Population growth 20.23%
Urban 77.73%
Rural 22.27%
Density/km2 829
Sex ratio 912 females per 1,000 males
Literacy 67.68%
Male 77.28%
Female 51.36%
Rural 65.46%
Urban 75.14%
Number of educational institutions (MHRD/other sources)
Elementary schools (2014) 2,40,332
Secondary schools (2014) 22,853
Degree colleges (2002-03) 940
Medical colleges (2009) 21
Govt engineering colleges (2012) 15
Private engineering colleges (2014) 369
Table 2: Lucknow District At a Glance
Area in sq km 2,528
Population Persons 45,89,838
Males 23,94,476
Females 21,95,362
Population growth 25.82%
Rural 15,50,842
Urban 30,38,996
Proportion to Uttar Pradesh Population 2.30%
Number of households 8,52,187
Sex ratio (female per 1,000 males) 917
Sex ratio (0-6 Years) 915
Scheduled caste population 9,48,294
Percentage to total population 20.66
Scheduled tribe population 7,506
Percentage to total population 0.16
Child proportion (0-6 age) 11.84%
Boys proportion 11.86%
Girls proportion 11.83%
Important towns Lucknow (M Corp) 28,15,601
Literacy and number of primary schools
Literates
Persons 31,27,260
Males 17,42,440
Females 13,84,820
Literacy rate
Persons 77.29
Males 82.56
Females 71.54
Schools Government primary schools 1,403
Government upper primary schools 478
Source: Census 2011.
Table 3: Pupil-Teacher Ratio in Surveyed Primary SchoolsSl Name
of the Total Total Pupil-No Primary School Pupils Teachers Teacher
Ratio (Approx)
1 Baraura 275 2 138 : 1
2 Bastauli 295 3 99 : 1
3 Gaur Bhith 222 2 111 : 1
4 Bhandotola 423 3 141 : 1
5 Barafkhana 80 2 40 : 1
6 Paltan Chhavani 232 4 58 : 1
7 Shahpur 82 2 41 : 1
8 Naubasta Kala 131 3 44 : 1
9 Chandan Gaon 144 3 48 : 1
10 Phattepur Gaon 161 4 41 : 1
11 Balram Nagar 288 5 58 : 1
12 Bhithauli Khurd 131 4 33 : 1
13 Bivi ganj 172 5 35 : 1
14 Goila 185 1 185 : 1
15 Gorvamau 228 2 114 : 1
16 Dasauli 79 2 40 : 1
Total 3,128 47 67 : 1
teachers were aware that such an Act was in operation.
Facilities in School: Most schools have basic infrastructure
such as school building, library, toilet, kitchen, and playground
on their premises. Class-rooms in most schools were inadequate, and
two or more classes were conducted in the same room at the same
time.
In most school premises where toilet facility was available,
students were not allowed to use it. In 83.75% of cases toilets
were not used by students and were kept locked. Likewise only 2.50%
of toilets were used separately by girls. No sepa-rate toilet for
boys and girls were present in schools, if such a facility was
available they were used by teachers. Students, mostly girls, clean
the classrooms.
About 72.5% of schools are situated at less than half a
kilometre (km) from the residence of students, 23.75% of schools
are situated between half a km and 1 km distance, and 3.75% of
schools are locat-ed at a distance of about 1 km. The RTE Act
mandates that schools are situated in neighbourhood localities of
students. Hence, distance from school is not a bar-rier for access
to education here.
Teachers: Teachers punctuality and attendance in school were
ascertained, and it was found that teachers come to
school regularly; however their timings vary. They come to
school as per their convenience. It was found that 20% of teachers
teach students regularly, where-as 15% do not teach and 52% of
teachers teach sometimes and not regularly. It was also understood
that since teachers do not come to school regularly, about
one-third of teachers were engaged in interpersonal chatting as
well as in other kinds of work. About 16% of teachers weave
sweaters in winter and sit idle in other seasons.
Pupil-Teacher Ratio: The pupil-teacher ratio is given in Table
3.
The study fi nds that in government primary schools, the
student-teacher ratio is one teacher per 67 students, i e, 67:1.
This underlines that after implementa-tion of the RTE Act also the
situation has not improved. A big hurdle to implement the RTE Act
is the lack of qualifi ed teachers, and in almost all schools there
are not
enough teachers; they are far below the re-quirements of the
government provisions.
The quality of education is at stake. Probably this is because
teachers engaged in teaching do not fi nd students of their caste
and religion, especially upper-caste students. It is evident from
the study that nowadays the largest number of students in
government and aided primary schools are from marginalised
sections, whereas upper-caste students with relatively better
economic conditions go to private schools. In such a situation girl
students are the worst affected, as most girl students feel
discriminated on caste and gender lines.
In Class 1, out of 741 students, 380 are male and 361 female.
Further, caste com-position reveals that out of 741 students only
27 belong to the general category, 232 are OBCs, 220 scheduled
castes (SCs) and 262 are Muslims. Hence, 96.35% were students from
SC, OBC and Muslim com-munities in Class 1. For every 20 students
from marginalised communities only one comes from the general
category. The situation of government-aided primary schools is
neglected and dreadful mainly because of such student
composition.
Caste, Religion and Gender
The study reveals that 62.50% of students feel discrimination on
the basis of gender, caste and religion. The behaviour of teachers
is governed by these categories. Hierarchical mindsets and
attitudes
COMMENTARY
Economic & Political Weekly EPW JANUARY 31, 2015 vol l no 5
27
which are prevalent in the larger context of society affect
interactions between students and teachers in schools. The level of
discrimination varies on the basis of caste and religious
composition of classrooms and also on the basis of socio-economic
background of students.
Scholarship and Accessories: School administrations provide
basic accessories to ensure that the learning process continues
without any break due to the lack of basic educational material.
Acces-sories such as clothes, bags, books, and scholarships are
provided to students. Mostly books, clothes and bags are pro-vided
in all schools but scholarships vary as shown in Chart 1. In 92.5%
of cases, scholarship is given to students, while the rest (7.5%)
do not receive any. Of the total number of students, 80% were given
Rs 300 scholarship but 20% re-ceived lower amounts of scholarship
(as shown in Chart 1). From the fi eld study it was observed that
in some schools a fee was charged during the fi rst admission and
during each examination. The amount varied from school to school.
Admission fees ranged from Rs 20 to Rs 35 and for examinations it
is from Rs 15 to Rs 20.
School Management Committees: There is a provision in the Act
for involvement of the community and parents for better management
of schools. The School Management Committees (SMC) were found to be
present in 11.25% schools, whereas 88.75% schools had no such
mechanism in place. Evidently, SMCs are not operational, and exist
only on paper. Dropouts: The RTE Act states that a child has the
right to free and compulsory education till they complete
elementary
education in a neighbourhood school, but yet completion of
elementary educa-tion is not achieved. Most schools reveal that in
Class 1 the number of students enrolled was high, but enrolment
con-sistently declined over the period of elementary education.
Retention of stu-dents up to Class 5 was abysmally low, and the
dropout rate was high, which questions the cre dibility of
implementa-tion of the RTE Act.
Conclusion and Suggestions
About 44% of the schools surveyed have no separate toilets for
girls; all schools are bereft of libraries; 60% of schools do not
comply with the mandated teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30; 28% of
schools do not have a playground; 16.6% of schools have no
provision for drinking water; around 45% of schools do not even
have their own boundary wall; more than half of Class 2 and Class 4
students sit together in one classroom; discrimina-tion on the
basis of caste and religion is in practice; levels of awareness
per-taining to RTE Act among communities are low; and fi nally
parents of students are not aware of SMCs and the function-ing of
SMC is not effective. Free and compulsory education is not fulfi
lled and the purpose of the RTE Act remains unachieved.
With multiple drawbacks it is clear that to achieve sarv shiksha
is an unfea-sible task and remains an eyewash. Hence there is an
urgent need to streng-then delivery mechanisms in school education,
especi ally at the grass-roots level. Further, there is a need to
create greater awareness at the community level to implement
various provisions of the RTE Act. When a community is more aware
of provisions, they will be able to claim what is due to them. This
would help in effective implementation of this Act, not only in
letter but also in
spirit. Another aspect of quality educa-tion is the nature of
job conditions for teachers. With a plethora of evidence, it is
found that differential remuneration to teachers affects their
motivation. Further, while the RTE Act suggests that no teacher be
engaged in any non-educational task, it excludes their engagement
in population census, duty pertaining to disaster relief and
elec-tions at various levels.
The following suggestions can help achieve and strengthen the
RTE Act and its provisions: (1) Effective implementation of
existing provisions of the RTE Act is required and engagement of
civil society may be further strengthened to make it more
effective. (2) Minimum pupil-teacher ratio should be maintained in
each school as per the provisions. This will be possible by
recruiting more qualifi ed and trained teachers.(3) Enough funds
should be allocated to develop infrastructural facilities in
schools.(4) In order to make RTE more effective, it is necessary to
establish modality through which the RTE Act is protected and a
system needs to be evolved to deal with lacunae in
implementation.(5) Though the RTE Act has a provision for including
overage children in its am-bit, in reality this is not happening;
hence proper groundwork needs to be initiated with the help of
civil society to meet targets. (6) Achieving the goal of equitable,
quality education for all requires progress along multiple
dimensions such as better policy, stronger political commitment,
superior implementation, and higher community involvement. (7)
Advocacy needs to be done by which states should ensure all
sanctioned posts of teachers are fi lled up immediately to achieve
targets.
Chart 1: Distribution of ScholarshipsRs 480, 6.25%
No fellowship, 7.50%
Rs 150, 2.50%
Rs 250,1.25%
Rs 290,2.50%Rs 300, 80%
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