The Indian primary education system is at a crossroads today. Ever since the seminal Right to Education (RTE) Bill was passed by the Parliament in 2009 and came into effect from April 1, 2010, there has been a raging debate about its pros and cons. The Bill is monumental and a path-breaker in many respects. But five years hence, the debate is mostly about the policy of no detention of students till Std. VIII. Academicians and parents are asking this: are we bringing up a generation of students who are not up to the mark?
The history of RTE
We have many reasons to be proud of our education system, especially the institutions of higher learning like the IITs and the IIMs. Indian students also go on to do very well in universities abroad. Often, the rigour of primary and secondary school years in India is cited as the reason for this success. It doesn’t matter that the traditional boards place too much emphasis on rote learning, but Indian students have accepted unconditionally, the need to put in tremendous amounts of hard work.
In the year 2009, things changed. The Right to Education (RTE) Act was passed by the Parliament, and it came into effect in 2010. Under this, the government made education free and compulsory from the ages 6-14. About 25% of the seats in each school were also reserved for students of economically backward classes living in proximity to the school. (see box) The then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had said, “We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education”.
This Act is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibility of ensuring enrollment, attendance and completion on the Government, unlike other countries where responsibility rests with parents. In the Indian Constitution, education comes under the purview of the States, and the Act has made state and local bodies accountable for the implementation, with a good chunk of financial support coming from the Centre. A committee set up to study the funds requirement estimated that over Rs.171,000 crores or 1.71 trillion (US$38.2 billion) would be required in the first five years to implement the Act.
But was ‘access to education’ confused with quality of education? The promotion till Std. VIII policy was to understandably take away the pressure of exams and also prevent school dropouts due to failure, especially seen in rural areas of India. But in quest of that, have we been promoting students who are simply not ready for the next level?
Is there a Fundamental Right to Pass?
The RTE Act provides that a child in the primary section should not be tested in the traditional sense of examinations and annual policy of promotion to the higher class. The new policy replacing it was the Continuous Comprehensive Assessment (CCA). For the first time ever, the onus for bringing the child up to standard was put on the school and the teacher. But does this work practically? Says P.M. Kamath, former Professor of Politics, University of Bombay, “This dictum is fine for the first four classes – I to IV or even up to V. But the child ought to know there is an intellectual gradation of the humans in society, some performing better than the other. Parents have to know in the early stage of education that Right to Education is Fundamental; there is no Fundamental Right to Pass!” A sentiment echoed by most teachers and academicians we spoke to.
In an ICSE school in Mumbai, for instance, students are needed to get a minimum of C2 grade to pass. If they get less, than that the teachers are required to continue administering the tests to ensure that they improve, something most teachers don’t do. They simply give students additional oral marks to bring them to the minimum C2 grade.
“Since the process of continuous evaluation is a time consuming one, many teachers do not complete it properly”, admits the Vice-Principal of the school. Most schools still face a severe shortage of teachers and infrastructure.
The bright side of RTE
The RTE Act was enacted with good intentions. The motive for discouraging detention is to allow children to develop at their pace. There are some who take a little longer to learn but will catch up with others. For instance, there are kids with learning difficulties who may be weak in a couple of areas like math or language, but average in other subjects. What such children need is assessment to determine their exact areas of difficulties and remedial classes in school to bring them up to par. Said a senior special education teacher from a prominent ICSE school in the Mumbai suburbs, who is in favour of the no-detention policy, “I don’t think the earlier system of exam ever assessed the reading and math skills of students. What they tested was the rote learning ability of children. I prefer competency tests after which a proper remedial approach is taken to help students to improve their skill level.”
Parents of children with learning and other difficulties feel that when the fear and stress of being failed or detained is taken away, their children will fare better. “In any case, if the child is poor in subjects like math, the ICSE board gives them the option of dropping math and science and opting for other subjects after Std. VIII. So, wouldn’t it have been a gross injustice to the child if he or she had been made to repeat a year earlier on account of failing these very subjects”, asks one mother, whose son studies in Std. IX in a prominent boys’ school in South Mumbai and has dropped maths and science in Std. IX.
But there should be a clause to make some exceptions. There are children who may have inherent disabilities. If these students are promoted without any support, the gap will increase and lead to their dropping out of mainstream education. “You can very well imagine a child’s frustration at not making any sense of what is going on in the class”, says the special education teacher. Increasingly, schools are suggesting options to parents like transferring to a less demanding State Board school or asking them to opt to hold back their child in the same class.
First generation learners
But the question we need to ask is this: Isn’t it the school and teachers’ responsibility to ensure ‘weak’ students are given extra coaching in the school? The RTE Act thinks yes.
Agrees the special education teacher, “It is definitely the teacher and the school’s responsibility to help the child in need. They can seek parents’ co-operation. However, in a country like ours where there are many first generation learners and with many children studying in English medium which is alien to them, is it possible for parents to provide the right kind of help?” She also feels that there must be provision for constructive discussions between parents and teachers and school administration, so that each stakeholder understands the other person’s point of view. This might lead to a decision which may be beneficial to the child in the long run.
Many schools monitor their teachers closely and provide enough counsellors and remedial teachers in case of children with difficulties or extra coaching in case of children who are weak in some subjects. But it’s not done with great alacrity or sincerity, feel many parents. And therein lies the fundamental problem with the ‘promotion policy’.
Testing by the backdoor
Amidst this came the directive from the Maharashtra State Council for Education Research and Training Education department asking all schools in Maharashtra belonging to all boards, to conduct baseline tests of Math and first language of students in Stds. II-VIII. Actually this should have been a corollary to the ‘promotion policy’ as it seeks to test the student’s competency of the previous standard. But as things often work in India, the manner of implementation has been haphazard.
Says Kamath, “The previous government created the mess of promotion policy and the present government has tried to introduce the system of examination from the backdoor to test the acquired knowledge of the pupils in the most regressive bureaucratic procedure of competency test”. According to him, “some Babus” have devised the exact test to be administered from class II to VIII, without leaving any discretion to the teacher or the head of the school. “A careful study of the test booklet reminds me of a circular sent by the Inspector of Education, prescribing the size of chalk that could be purchased under monetary peanuts given to the schools as aid under Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan (as the government has stopped giving any non salary grant to schools), as though schools do not have any idea of administration! That way, the competency test booklet has given one freedom to the teacher; testing material can be taken to the class either in a bag or in a basket!”
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) describes the modalities of the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the Act came into force on 1 April 2010.
The Act also specifies minimum norms in elementary schools as follows:
He feels that if these tests are administered, the next step would be for the government to take over the conduct of examinations from class II to VIII! “When that happens, what remains with the school is to conduct of examinations for IX and XI. The current trend shows that it will not be too far away from the reality!” he exclaims. Given the fact that the Maharashtra government is centralising all data it collects under the centralised SARAL (Systematic Administrative Reforms for Achieving Learning), an online system to keep track of student and school information and reduce discrepancies in adherence to RTE, we are talking of more control, rather than less.
Conclusion
In the final reckoning, is the RTE Act beneficial to students and primary education in India? If followed to the dot, perhaps it is. The government has definitely made education ‘accessible’ to all with primary schools located in close proximity to most habitations, even in the remotest areas. But a school is not just brick and mortar – teachers and administrators play a very important role. Educating a child and make him/her a contributing member of the society should be the objective of every school. Does the RTE Act put us on track for that? Only time will tell.