The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 remains inadequate in promoting incentive-based system for children’s education without generating awareness about the importance of schooling. Analyse.

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 mandates free and compulsory education for children aged 6-14 years under Article 21-A of Indian Constitution. However, the act is excessively input-focused rather than outcome-oriented.

It remained inadequate in promoting incentive-based system and awareness for children’s education, due to:

• Lack of nutritious food: Poor-quality mid-day meal disincentivises students to attend school.
•  Ineffective evaluation: Lack of awareness among teachers about Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation systems failed to assess the holistic development of children.
• Inadequate emphasis on learning outcomes: Poor learning outcomes and the absence of vocational education failed to make children realise the real-life benefits of education. This often leads to drop-out from school after 14 years of age.
• Detention policy: Amendment to RTE, 2019 does away with the no-detention policy, the removal of which disincentivises children of marginalised sections to continue education.
• Non-inclusive: Non-inclusion of unaided minority institutions and children-with-special-needs (CWSN) provides no incentive to them for education.
• Lack of bridge courses: As age-appropriate bridge courses promised in RTE were not implemented on ground, it deters children who could not start education early.
• Failure to meet standards relating to infrastructure like pupil-teacher ratio, safe-drinking water and washrooms discourage children, especially adolescent girls, from continuing schooling.

Way Forward:

• Inclusion of Early Child Care and education under the RTE Act.
• Awareness building and adequate training to improve the evaluation system.
• Provision of education in the mother tongue.
• Introduce choice-based curriculum and vocational training in school education.
• Compliance with infrastructure norms and focus on student attendance.
• Media campaigns and community awareness programmes for increasing awareness and preventing drop-out rates.

Proper implementation of RTE, improving teaching quality and accountability would help to improve quality and innovation in teaching and improve learning outcomes.