In little over a month, the Right to Education Act will come into effect. This will be six decades after Independence and way past the 1960 deadline suggested by the Constitution for Universalisation of Elementary Education. It would essentially mean, as the Economic Survey 2009-10 lists, that ?every child of the age 6-14 years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education.? Also, ?that the appropriate government and the local authority shall establish, within such area or limits of neighbourhood, a school where it is not so established, within a period of 3 years.?
?According to our estimates the total expenditure on elementary education will be to the tune of Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000 crore per annum for the next five years. The current allocation for Centre and states combined is Rs 18,000 crore?leaving a gap of Rs 10-12,000 crore. ?If the Centre is serious about RTE, it will have to find a way to bridge this gap? said Santosh Mehrotra, director, Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Planning Commission.
?If the finance ministry and Planning Commission are unable to bring in enough funds to fill in this gap, alternatives will have to be found. It could be through a roll-back of the tax concessions, through additional borrowing, through allocation of funds procured from divestment, scaling up PPPs and creating a National Education Finance Corporation with adequate mobilisation of core funding.?
However, Madhav Chavan, founder, Pratham is optimistic. ?The government can do a lot in three years.? Rightly so. The Annual Status of Education Report points out that 96% of children in the age group 6 to 14 in rural India were enrolled in school in 2009. He has his concerns about the Universalisation of Elementary Education programme though. ?The programme doesn?t lay adequate emphasis on the quality of learning. Grievance redressal mechanism is another issue. Moreover, the programme is heavily biased towards supply and not outcome.?
A lot of glitches remain. The median number of years of schooling in India, as per NFHS II, is just 5.5 years. Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, MP, Andhra, UP and Rajasthan are way below the median. Moreover, the dropout rates in school still hover around 52%! Few guesses why the silver lining is much awaited.