Implementing Right to Education: Issues and challenges

Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. (Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights). This UN recommendation has been reinforced in the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act (2009), which came into effect in India on 1 April 2010, enshrining in law for the first time the rights of all Indian children aged between six and 14 years to free and compulsory elementary education regardless of caste, class, gender, etc. The RTE Act, though deserves due credit for laying down in fairly specific terms state’s responsibility towards education, it would be appropriate to examine the status and awareness on the part of schools and concern authority to provide free elementary education to the children aging between six to fourteen years of old. Present research study has tried to explore the status of the implementation, awareness and understanding of the provisions of RTE amongst teachers, parents and children in some rural schools of Haryana. Two years have already passed since implementation of the RTE Act in Haryana but so far there has been some progress only in terms of enrollment/basic infrastructure but towards guaranteeing quality education in terms of student learning the state has not achieved much. Same is the case with regard to its awareness and understanding among its various stakeholders. By providing some recommendations and further scope of research the paper calls for an urgent intervention by the government to strengthen the operational aspect of the Act in the state.