RTE Act Implementation in Maharashtra – Shiksha Adalat

by admin | Feb 14, 2016

RTE Act Implementation in Maharashtra

Section	IMPLEMENTATION	ISSUES
Sec 3(2) No child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him from pursuing or completing elementary education 3(3) [(3) A child with disability referred to in sub-clause (A) of clause (ee) of section 2 shall, without prejudice to the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities have the same rights to pursue free and compulsory elementary education.	Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation	· Students have to pay many kind of fee in private aided/ unaided schools as Computer, Smart Class, School Development fee etc. Govt. has regulatory mechanism but it is not effective. · In Maharashtra 22 thousand physically challenged children are out of school, as per Social & Rural Research Institute Report( Loksatta Nov 6,2014)
Sec 4 Special Provisions for out of School children, direct admission in a class appropriate to their age	Mah State G R dated August 28, 2014 ( Working group constituted) ; Mah State G R dated March 28, 2013; Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation	State govt has conducted state wide survey on 4^th July 2015 and found just 10 thousand out of school children, and too considering Madrsa students as out of school(violating RTE act);Census 2011 report showed 4.96 lakh child labour in state; SSA report 2014 showed 1.85 lakh out of school children; TISS found 38 thousand homeless children only in Mumbai. Children with mining labours list shows 31 thousand while brick and construction industry labours’ children goes more than 5o lakh if only two children are considered per family of labours. This proves insincerity of Govt towards admitting these out of school children in schools or provide them school facilities at their living sites!
Section 4.Remedial Coaching for poor/under performers/ laterally admitted children	Mah State G R dated June 16, 2010	Schools with two shifts, due to non availability of class rooms do not conduct extra coaching.
Sec 5 (i) Every child shall be entitled to receive free textbooks, writing materials and uniforms.”		However, the parents have to bear the cost of uniforms, books and stationary, as the same were not being provided by the schools. Hence, government should include these cost within the per-child expenditure that is to be reimbursed to each school.
Section 5. Right of transfer to other school:		Practically not easy, students parents face most difficulties
Sec 6 Duty of appropriate Government and local authority to establish school	Mah State G R dated June 14, 2012 Mah State G R dated August 27, 2012 Mah State G R dated Sept. 25, 2013 Mah State G R dated August13, 2014	Perspective Development Plan was prepared after mapping, decision taken to establish 651 Primary schools, 1579 Upper Primary Schools, 142 Secondary schools in Marathi medium as per RTE norms. However for Urdu, Kannad, Telugu, Hindi medium Perspective Development Plan not required, no school other than Marathi medium was established. Where 200 population, minimum 30( later modified by 20) children resides, Urdu school establishment proposals to be submitted by local govt.
Sec 6	Mah State Director School Education Circular dated February 12, 2013	For Urdu medium schools, Group School concept by merging 2-3 nearby schools was proposed.
	Mah State G R dated February 13, 2013	New pattern under RTE class I-V and class VI-VIII; still under implementation
Sec 7 Sharing of financial and other responsibilities:		For last 3-4 years, still state govt didn’t reimbursed fee of candidates selected under 25% free seats
8. Duties of appropriate Government:
8(b) Ensure availability of a neighbourhood school as specified in section 6	Mah State G R dated June 14, 2012	Still schools in Urdu, kannada, telugu, Hindi edia are not made available as required/ ensured by RTE
8(c) ensure that the child belonging to weaker section and the child belonging to disadvantaged group are not discriminated	Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation;
8(d) provide infrastructure including school building, teaching staff and learning equipment		Shortage of teaching staff in private aided schools
8(e) provide special training facility specified in section 4;	Mah State G R dated June 16, 2010	Schools with two shifts, due to non availability of class rooms do not conduct extra coaching.
8(f) ensure and monitor admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by every child;	School Admission Rules Mah State G R dated June 11, 2010 Mah State G R dated June 11, 2010	Most of illiterate poor parents face much difficulties in admissions due to lack of proper guidance.s
Sec 8 (g) ensure good quality elementary education conforming to the standards and norms specified in the Schedule;	Govt has initiated Baseline Survey for Quality improvement.	AS per ASER annual Report 2014, 40.7% of Class III students unable to read Class I text book, 37.8% of class V students can not read Second Std Text book ; 54.5% students were unable to perform two digits addition subtraction.
Sec 9 Duties of local authority: Every local authority shall: 9(m) Decide The Academic Calendar	Mah State G R dated August 20, 2014	Before commencement of academic year from June, every year admissions in Pre Primary and primary classes start in Jan-Feb violating RTE norms
Sec 10. Duty of parents and guardian:		Specially Labours, Slum areas and rural areas, migrants violate the norms keeping away their children from schools
Sec 11. Appropriate Government to provide for pre-school education:	Govt of India Gazette dt December 13,2002; Article 45 of Constitution-86^th amendment “The state shall endeavor to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years” Anganwadis, Balwadis working under ICDS NAC has suggested starting of preprimary sectionsin Govt Schools	· No mapping is done by State Govt. for ensuring availability of Anganwadis, Balwadis in Minority dominated areas; No provision of appointing Sewikas knowing Urdu, Telugu, Kannada; · No Specific targets and achievements under PM15 PP · No rules, norms, byelaws to regulate pre primary schools.
Section 12. Extent of school’s responsibility for free and compulsory education: Section 12(1)(b)(c) mandates 25 percent reservation for children from economically and socially weaker sections in private unaided non-minority schools at the entry level	State Govt Gazette notified on May 24, 2012 1.5 lakh students should get its benefit in Maharashtra Govt has collected area wise data about age and community wise children	· Online procedure followed in few cities. · No ceiling on income limit of SC/ST or disabled children. · With the government order issued on 21st January, 2015 and the subsequent High Court order on 24th July, 2015, it is now clear that both – Std. I and Pre-Primary will be treated as entry level. · Each city in state follow different timeline for these admissions under 25% quota. · Under the current lottery system, it was possible for a child to get selection offer from more than one school. While some students got as many as 14 admission offers, 4372 children out of 10820 applicants in Pune were not allocated any school in the first lottery
Sec 13. No capitation fee and screening procedure for admission:	Mah. State Circular April 21, 2012	In practice, almost every school violate this rule. No control/ Check mechanism to curb these malpractices; Borivali school pulled up for ‘donation’ demand ( Indian Express February 16,2014) ; No school is penalized for violating it.
Sec 14(1,2) Proof of age for admission : School Admission Rules	Mah State G R dated June 11, 2010	Schools do not give admissions without age proof, Birth Certificate; Leaving Certificate.
Sec 15. No denial of admission:		Specially in Cities, CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE other board affiliated schools deny admissions to normal background children.
Sec 16 . Prohibition of holding back and expulsion:	Mah State G R dated June 16, 2010	Reinstate expelled Thane schoolkids: Child rights commission has directed (TNN ; April 29, 2014) Revision, Remedial classes not conducted properly.After class VIII, most of schools detain or issue pass TC to poor students in class IX to maintain their class X result.
Sec 17 (1) Physical/ Mental/ Corporal Punishment prohibited	Mah State G R dated March 1, 2011	Specially in English schools, much complains are received
Sec 18(5) Non Recognised/ illegal schools, action guidelines	Mah State G R dated June 11, 2010; Action Stayed Mah State G R dated August 20, 2012	No schools has been shut down or fined as per RTE norms
Sec 19. Norms and standards for school:	Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation; Non Salary grants to schools complying RTE Norms Mah State G R dated January 19, 2013	UDISE Report card is available which seems to be not factual.(PAGE NO 44-45)
Sec 21(A)School Managing Committee , Role, powers, responsibilities, duties	Mah State G R dated June 17, 2010	Awraeness week celebrated; SMC role in quality improvement not observed in schools.
Sec 22. School Development Plan:	Govt has collected area wise data about age and community wise children	For each school, it is mandatory, but found to be not properly prepared and followed
Sec 23(1,2). Qualifications for appointment and terms and conditions of service of teachers: Qualified and Trained Teachers for Class I-V; VI-VIII Sec 23(2)Implementation of TET	Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation; Mah State Circular dated June 14, 2010 Mah State G R dated December 7, 2011(surplus teachers approved)	Deadline was March 31, 2015 · Maharashtra state TET had a 5% success rate. · Still thousands of less trained teachers working at upper primary level. · Upto 2012-13, all non TET teachers recruited.
Sec 24. Duties of teachers and redressal of grievances:	Mah State G R dated April 18, 2013; District level flying squad for monitoring RTE Implementation	· In double shift schools in Pune and other urban areas of Maharashtra, the school day itself has fewer hours of instruction than mandated by RTE Act.
Sec 25(1) Pupil Teacher Ratio;	Mah State Circular dated June 18, 2010	· Teachers availability data collected · Pupil-Teacher Ratio not implemented in Private aided/unaided schools · Class rooms with 1:70 or more students exist in large number of schools in cities; Govt school comply PTR 84.36%, Pvt Aided48.42%; Pvt unaided59.99%(ToI August 15, 2013) · Insufficient teachers in 36% of schools(Maharashtra Times August 5, 2013);Shortage of 26000 teachers( Loksatta May 24, 2014)
Sec 26 Filling up vacancies of teachers: More than 10% of approved teachers posts should not be kept vacant		In Maharashtra, for last three years, ban on recruitment of teachers, specially thousands of schools face shortage of teachers
Section 27. Prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes	Mah State G R dated May 22, 2013;	Thousands of Teachers are given Booth Level Officers BLO duties,( which do not come under Election Duty) suffering academic activity,quality of education, further they have to take care of Mid Day Meals Scheme at schools
Section 28. Prohibition of private tuition by teacher:
29. Curriculum and evaluation procedure:		CCE is observed to be not implemented in letter and spirit
Section 29(1) Academic Authority for RTE implementation	Mah State G R dated March 1, 2011
30. Examination and completion certificate:
31. Monitoring of child’s right to education:		State Commission for Protection of Child rights of Maharashtra has disposed of 108 of 150 complaints ( Two Circles dot Net, April 4, 2013)
Section 32 Grievances Redressal Mechanism	Mah State G R dated April 21, 2014	Although from local to state level, different Grievance Redressal Committees are constituted, but common man is unaware about them and complaints are not resolved in time effectively.
Sec 3.2 Maharashtra RTE Rules 2013 Every school shall give wide publicity to the notice of 25% free admissions in the neighbourhood area through the appropriate means like loud speaker, pamphlets, local T.V., website, public announcement”.		· Wide Notification about the Process is not done using all media
Clause 12(C) Maharashtra RTE Rules, 2013 The first instalment of reimbursement must be received latest by September 30, and the second installment by May 30		· No reimbursement was provided to any school by the government as of 30 May, 2015. The schools who had been admitting children through Sec. 12 of the RTE Act from the academic year 2012-2013 should have got the 6th installment by then, but due to a delay of nearly three years, they were yet to receive their first installment.

FIVE YEARS ON, ONLY 25% SEATS FILLED IN RTE QUOTA IN 2013-14 IN MAHARASHTRA Mumbai Mirror ; Mar 28, 2014

The statistics of applications and admissions at various stages of the process in Pune and Mumbai from the government website, and got the following results.

City	Class	Vacancies	Applications	Total Admission Offers	Unique Offers*
Mumbai	Std. I	7371	1755	2516	1248
	Pre-Primary	4186	2920	2433	1601
Pune	Std. I	8433	4131	6649	3173
	Pre-Primary	5191	6689	4552	3275

*Since one student could get multiple admission offers, unique offers is the count of number of children who got at least one admission offer

City	Class	Admissions till 24 July	Admissions after 24 July Total Admissions	Total Admissions	Children with No Offers	Seats still Vacant
Mumbai	Std. I	540	121	661	6123	6710
	Pre-Primary	815	60	875	2585	3311
Pune	Std. I	1453	465	1918	958	6980
	Pre-Primary	1914	329	2243	3414	2948

At the end of Round one admissions, on 21st October, 2015, more than three-fourth of the RTE seats still remained vacant in Mumbai and Pune, while an equal number of children were not allocated any seat in the first round of lottery.

74% seats under RTE unused.(Asian Age Feb 19, 2014)
Section 32 : Education dept to set up redressal forum to check RTE Act violations – If parents are unhappy with the decision taken at the taluka level, they can approach the district-level committee, while appeals against orders of the district panel, can be made to the state committee. Further, appeals against state-level panel orders can be made to the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR). All appeals can be made within 30 days and they have to be disposed off within 45 days from the day of receipt of the appeal, the notice said. –( http://indianexpress.com; May 1, 2014)
Section 32: The Bombay High Court has directed the state government to come out with a mechanism to ensure that a person eligible for admission under the Right to Education (RTE) Act can approach authorities with grievances if s/he has any;( DNA; July 9,2015)
Section 6: Court Ordres: In earlier pattern, Govt run primary schools upto class IV, upper primary upto Class VII. Non availability of classes V and VIII urged students to discontinue before completing elementary education.Taking a serious view of the non-implementation of the RTE Act by the state, the Bombay high court has directed the secretary, education, to explain what steps are being taken to ensure free and compulsory education for children till Std VIII. The Bombay High court directed the state to file an affidavit by January 20,2014 giving details of the steps taken by it to implement the RTE Act. The HC was hearing a petition filed by Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha, a union of teachers working in municipal schools, seeking that the government and the civic body be directed to implement the Act in all aided and unaided schools in the state, particularly in Mumbai. Counsel for the petitioners Rajiv Patil argued that as of now the BMC issues school leaving certificate (LC) to students of Stds IV and VII (depending on after what standard primary ends in a particular civic school) and, hence, these children are likely to go out of the education system once they take the LC, thus getting deprived of free further education till Std VIII, said Patil.The BMC runs 1,174 schools and the Act would be applicable to over 2.27 lakh students who are at present studying in Stds IV and VII, added the petition.( DNA; December 13, 2013)
Section 6: Bombay High Court questioned State Govt. policy of restricting 289 BMC Schools upto Class VII not to start Class VIII( Hindustan Times November 10, 2014)
Section 6: School principals are awaiting state government notification to clear the confusion regarding joining class V to class IV and class VIII to class VII under the Right To Education Act. The state government formed the RTE rules in 2011 but has not yet issued a notification regarding joining classes.(TNN; March 21, 2014)
Section 27: In a significant order, the Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra Government not to impose the burden of managing mid-day meal scheme for students on teachers, calling it “non-educational work”. Putting such non-teaching responsibility on teachers would amount to violation of section 27 of the Education Act, a division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka ruled . Section 27 provides that “no teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purposes other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the State Legislatures or Parliament, as the case may be”, the court noted. (Times of India: March,1, 2014)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

WRIT PETITION NO.9026 OF 2014 WITH CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 2659 ORDER OF 2014 decided on 14^th December 2015

Challenged new staffing pattern under RTE, HM Post, other posts abolished if students strength less than 200

The challenge to the Constitutional validity of Schedule under RTE Act is rejected. b) No interference in the State education policies and the Circulars/GRs including Government Resolution dated 13 December 2013, 26 August 2015, so alsorelated State Circulars/letters/orders. c) The State Government to revisit, reassess and reevaluate the eduction policies from time to time, and implement it in accordance with the governing laws. d) The services of surplus “permanent teachers” including, Headmasters are protected to the extent of providing them all the financial benefits till they are continued in same school or they are accommodated or absorbed elsewhere or declared surplus. e) The surplus declared headmasters are entitled for their salary as of Headmasters, though required to work as Senior teacher in the School. f) The State to proceed as per the Government Circulars and take effective steps to achieve the constitutional and RTE Act objects. g) All the Petitions, including Public Interest Litigation are disposed of accordingly. h) In view of above reasons, all the interim orders, i) Rule in all the matters are discharged accordingly. j) In view of the dismissal of the Petitions, all the connected Civil Applications are also disposed of. k) There shall be no order as to costs

Only 7% schools in state conform to RTE norms (Agency: DNA, Aug 1, 2013)
Only 22% schools in Maharashtra fulfil basic RTE norms(Agency: DNA, 30 April 2014)
Why would kids want to go to such schools?’ According to the 2012 Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE)

Mumbai: More than 90% schools in the state do not have 10 basic facilities listed as mandatory under the RTE Act, including separate toilets for girls and boys, safe drinking water and playgrounds.

In fact, many schools in the state do not even have five of the ten provisions, a report by Unicef pointed out.

The Right to Education Act (2009) stipulates that all schools have to be equipped with at least 10 facilities given in its schedule by 2013. These include basic facilities, infrastructure and pupil-teacher ratios. Schools have been given an extension till October to get these in order or they will be derecognised.

The story is no better in Mumbai, where 1,600 out of 1,703 schools have not fulfilled norms such as infrastructure facilities, principals’ rooms, toilets, drinking water, playgrounds and kitchen sheds.

According to the latest Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE), only 54.33% primary schools in the state have an electricity connection, and only 44.51% of all schools have computers, while only 13.91% have computer-aided learning facilities

The question experts are asking is: Why would students come to such abysmal schools?

“Looking at some of the civic schools makes you feel like they are still in the 18th century. Just offering mid-day meals is not going to attract a child to school,” said Prashant Redij, president of the State Principals’ Association, Mumbai chapter.

Farida , founder-director of Pratham, said that schools continue to be in such a state even three years since the RTE was implemented because school management committees (SMCs) are not functioning properly. Such committees should comprise parents and teachers and produce child-friendly school development plans.

But only 5.19% government schools have constituted SMCs, states the U-DISE report.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), which is the main vehicle for implementing the RTE, has conducted training programmes to train SMCs. “It is a challenge to explain the scope of the SMC to parents of civic and government school children as they are not educated,’’ said a senior official from the SSA, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to talk to the media.

However, large-scale training programmes are being conducted to sensitise parents , where they are told how they can improve the school so that their children can also get access to better quality education, the official added.