Right to Education Awareness Program

Right to Education Awareness Program

For the development of any country education for all is a pre-requisite. To make this a reality, a positive beginning was made by the Government in India and Right to Education Act was passed by the Indian Parliament on 4th August 2009. The Act describes the modalities having the provision for free and compulsory education for children between 6 to 14 years under article 21 A of the Indian Constitution. This Act makes education as a fundamental right of every child enforceable by law. The Act is having 37 sections which are part of seven chapters and one schedule. The basic theme of free education implies that any cost that prevents a child from accessing school will be borne by the State which shall have the responsibility of enrolling the child as well as ensuring attendance and completion of 8 years of schooling. No child shall be denied admission for want of documents; no child shall be turned away if the admission cycle in the school is over and no child shall be asked to take an admission test. Children with disabilities will also be educated in the mainstream schools. All private schools shall be required to enroll children from weaker sections and disadvantaged communities in their incoming class to the extent of 25% of their enrolment, by simple random selection. No seats in this quota can be left vacant. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been mandated to monitor the implementation of this historic Right. A special Division within NCPCR undertakes this huge and important task. A special toll free helpline to register complaints is also set up by NCPCR for this purpose. But the disheartening fact is however that today 81,50,617 children are out of school out of total 190,582,581 children in the age group of 6-13 years. At the national level, among the children who are out of school, 74.89% are those who are never sent to school and 25.11% are those who had dropped out from school after one or more years of schooling.

Three years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was passed, around 50% of families in slums across the country are still unaware of its existence, according to a report released by Child Rights and You, a non-government organization.

According to the report, roughly one out of every two respondents was ignorant about the RTE Act although awareness in Chennai and Bangalore, at 74% and 85%, respectively, was quite high.

Furthermore, 72% of the respondents across the five cities were ignorant about any government schemes exclusively for girls.