RTE – through the lenses of Aam Amdmi

We all heard our Prime Minister announcing ‘Right to free and compulsory education act’ and making it operational from 1^st April 2010. To many, this moment was more precious and historic than the moment of ‘Tryst with Destiny’. It was historic day because first time in the history of independent India, union government has laid down such a power full act to ensure the right education for those 17 million children who are out of school.

A cynic would say, so what’s so new in this act. There were many such acts made in yesteryears as well, but look here we are, still struggling and making acts.

But the groups and the individuals who have been working and waiting this Act have a different view. They see how vital this act is for the future of our nation.

Any investment in the human energy goes long way. There are nations who believed that if they put their money in infrastructure, making sky touching buildings in sea, expanding roads and making web of metros, they will be building the future of their nation. They realized very soon that how wrong they were. The skyscrapers and glittering cities can not broaden the horizon of human being until we invest in the people themselves.

On the other hand, a nation which is still developing from last two decades but paid little more attention to the education system and human energy amid its corrupted and irregular system, survived the great depression-2. We have lot to learn from these recent year experiences.

The wise people of this world say that the Lewis turning point of such a nation will be longer than the one, which builds roads and buildings like assembly line. But this doesn’t ignore the importance of building infrastructure at all, may be the priority, yes.

There are challenges and there are drawbacks but as they say law is also like a human, growing and evolving. The important point is viewing and pointing out these loopholes to the NAC and get these amended as smoothly as possible.

Now a day once someone starts talking about this act, there will be numerous others who will start pointing out and complaining the corruption and irregularities. But they completely miss the point that if there is a draw backs why not to use a right platform to pass this to authorities than beating the drums in close circle.

A lot has been written in the print and electronic media about Teacher – student ratio, lack of trained teachers, proper utilization of teachers, building school infrastructure. But the vital point is, this should not be like just another act, there are expectations of the people and parents (especially underprivileged class) from this and government should put more emphasis on this. And the first step could be a smooth co-ordination between state and Central government on the implementation of this act.

The monetary fact, showing that the central government is spending just .76% of GDP on the education is, acerbic. However, at the same time we all know that efficient and honest use of even this share of GDP is a challenge at a time when the rations of Mid Day meal is making its way to teachers and officers home.

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