Now that the Right to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010 will become operational on April 1 with Union human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal having signed the official notification on February 12, the first of its many implementation pains was felt in less than a weeks time. In the national capital, which is governed by the Delhi Education (DE) Act, 1973, the middle class parents community received a shock when Sibal told a television channel that the RTE Act overrides the DE Act. Therefore private schools are free to determine their tuition fees and teachers salaries.While private school promoters were pleasantly surprised, state government officials and legal experts question the ministers interpretation of the RTE Act, even though he is a legal eagle in his own right. Though Sibal retracted his sweeping statement the next day by asserting that the UPA-2 government is against commercialisation of education, he met with Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit to persuade her to amend the DE Act so that it doesnt conflict with the RTE Act.
Within the legal fraternity its well-settled law that when state legislation/rules conflict with Central legislation, the latter will prevail, and where rules are absent in Central legislation, those available will apply. The RTE Act clearly says that each state has the freedom to legislate on education and frame its rules. Therefore what the minister says is in conflict with the Act itself. However the RTE Act is primarily focused on government schools and provisions for private school education were deliberately sneaked in to allow commercialisation of school education. Private schools freedoms cant be uncontrolled and unguided. To suggest that is ridiculous, argues Ashok Agarwal, convener of education NGO Social Jurist and president of the All India Parents Association. Agarwal believes that tuition fees and teachers salaries, regulated under DE Act rules will subsist even after the RTE Act becomes law until the DE Act is amended.
Another significant announcement Sibal made on the eve of the national rollout of the RTE Act has received better response. On February 16 the HRD ministry gave the official green signal to a long pending proposal to standardise the core mathematics and science curriculums of 42 Central and state examination boards across the country by 2013, as recommended by COBSE (Council of Boards of Secon-dary Education). Although thus far only 20 exam boards have signed on the dotted line, enlightened educationists have welcomed the proposal as it will result in standardisation of teaching-learning in these core subjects country-wide, and smooth the way for a common national entrance examination for professional study programmes.
If teaching-learning standards in subjects such as maths, science and English are common across all examination boards, it will help create a genuinely national labour market. However, the real challenge is how to translate this proposal into action on the ground. Teacher training, develop-ment of study material and textbooks and evaluation will also need to be standardised, says Prof. B.P. Khandelwal, a former chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education who also served as president of COBSE for two terms.
Even as the decks are being cleared for the national rollout of the RTE Act on April 1, the challenges –– anticipated and unforeseen –– of implementing this overdue historic legislation are springing up. Informed HRD ministry officials and educationists are in agree-ment that the process of cleaning the augean stables of post-independence Indias neglected K-12 education system will be messy. But they are glad that the process has begun.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)