Latest news with #RTEAct
The Hindu
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Rajasthan Class 5 board results 2025: 97.46% pass rate sparks debate over early exams
The Rajasthan Secondary Education Board (RBSE) Class 5 board exam results were announced by the state Education Minister, Madan Dilawar, on May 30. While the reports cite a pass percentage of 97.46%, which is a slight increase from previous years—2024 (97.06%) and 2023 (97.30%)—teachers and educationists question the relevance of board exams for lower grade students amidst teacher shortages and poor infrastructure. The exams were conducted from April 1 to 7 this year. State-level board examinations for lower grades — Class 5 and Class 8 — have made a comeback in several states, including Punjab, following amendments to the Right to Education Act (2009) in 2019 and 2024. Rajasthan has been conducting Class 5 board exams for nearly a decade and Class 8 for longer. The results made media headlines and brought to the fore a trend towards detaining students though it must be said that Rajasthan's Class 5 board exams rarely lead to detention. Facilitating amendment The 2019 RTE amendment scrapped the no-detention policy, and subsequent changes announced in 2024 solidified the Centre and states' authority to conduct examinations for Class 5 and 8 students, and retain them in the same class, if they fail, even after a re-examination conducted two months later with additional instruction. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009) was introduced to ensure access to basic education up to the 8th grade. The no-detention policy under the RTE Act aimed to prevent students, particularly from underserved backgrounds, from being pushed out of the schooling system due to failure, curb dropout rates, and reduce exam pressure. While the amendments permit the State to detain failing students, a government school teacher from Jodhpur, speaking anonymously, said, 'Though exams are conducted at the State of Rajasthan level, students receive grades from A to E and are not detained. Those who get an E must appear for re-examination. Even if they fail again, they're promoted but must continue studying the failed subject.' Naveen Chauhan, a government school teacher from Ajmer, agreed that detention is rare in Rajasthan but added that board exams for younger grades cause significant stress for both teachers and students. 'Students in CBSE schools face board exams later, but those in Rajasthan state government schools (RBSE) must write them in Classes 5 and 8—with the same formalities as Class 10 and 12 exams.. They take exams in unfamiliar schools, with roll numbers, mapped centres, centralised answer sheet checking, and admission cards. This entire process creates mental pressure,' Mr. Chauhan explained. He added, 'Teachers face scrutiny if students receive E-grades and are pressured to improve their performance. They even receive official notices.' Teacher shortages 'Conducting re-exams and ensuring students restudy the material is challenging,' said Vijay Soni, an educationist with 33 years of experience and state president of the Rajasthan State Shikshak Sangh RadhaKrishnan. 'The real issue is the severe shortage of primary teachers. Many schools in Rajasthan have just one teacher handling all primary classes.' Mr. Soni highlighted systemic problems: 'Teachers aren't just teaching—they manage mid-day meals (nutrition tracking), ensure children drink milk, and handle non-teaching duties like booth-level officer tasks and surveys. This pulls them away from classrooms.' As per UDISE 2023-24, Rajasthan has 7,668 schools with a single teacher. 'Board exams don't improve learning. Learning improves when every class has at least one dedicated teacher,' Mr. Soni stressed. 'If teachers can't focus fully on teaching, how can education improve?' There are five grades in primary school, and each grade should have at least one separate teacher because the material for each class is different. We need different classrooms as well, said Mr. Soni. 'Despite this broken system, teachers must ensure students score above E; otherwise, their increments get halted and face issues in assured career promotion,' he added. The ripple effect post RTE amendment Following RTE amendments, some states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Delhi, abandoned the no-detention policy and began requiring children to repeat classes. Others, like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, citing concerns over exam pressure, chose to retain the policy. States including Punjab introduced public examinations for Grades 5 and 8. Karnataka, too, issued a directive in 2023 mandating board exams for Classes 5 and 8. The decision was challenged in court, where a single-judge bench initially nullified the order, but a division bench later reversed the ruling, allowing the government to proceed. Last year, though, the Supreme Court reprimanded the Karnataka government for conducting half-yearly board examinations for Classes 8, 9, and 10, directing the State to halt the exams and withhold results. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu state education department had planned to introduce board exams for Classes 5 and 8 in 2019 but withdrew the decision in 2020 after backlash from students, teachers, and activists. While State education bodies have taken varied stances on the no-detention policy and exams, teachers and activists continue to raise important questions over whether an end-of-the-year board exam can provide authentic assessment.
The Hindu
20 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
No better time to reform implementation of RTE Act in Tamil Nadu
The recent furore over delay in opening the admission portal for Right to Education (RTE) Act for the academic year 2025-26 has not only informed people about the very existence of the Act but it has also opened up a discussion for the regulation of the Act and its implementation. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, enacted in India on August 4, 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14. While the portal would usually be opened by mid-April and the admission process would end by May, the unusual delay of over a month has put the parents waiting for admission under RTE, at a crossroads. Despite facing dilutions, under RTE, a considerable number of students looking for education in private schools benefited, but the recent developments in the centre-State conflict in releasing fund meant for school education have directly affected the admission processes. Though the School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi recently said that he had written a letter to the Centre seeking details about the pending dues under the RTE Act, the State announced that it would bear the Centre's dues too. As the Madras High Court was hearing a case pertaining to the delay in admissions under RTE Act, based on a petition filed by V. Eswaran, an administrator of the Coimbatore-based organisation Marumalarchi Iyakkam, the court has directed the Union Government to submit details of funds due to Tamil Nadu under the 25% reservation quota mandated by the RTE Act. Anand Raj, a social activist based in Madurai, said that a Right to Information Act reply from Tamil Nadu government regarding the fund released by the Union government for the RTE Act from 2009-10 till 2018-19 revealed that while ₹20,300 crore was to be released, only ₹8,446 crore was released. He noted that the issue of Union holding back the funds meant for the Act was not a new one but had been in practice for several years. Apart from the political motivations which affected the implementation of the Act, the actual admission practice, on several occasions, has come under criticism, owing to the prevailing gaps in implementation. S. Umamaheshwari, an education activist, said that citing very minor differences, the private schools, awaiting reasons to reject applications under RTE Act, abruptly reject admissions. Reimbursement 'Though the State government reimburses the schools, private schools, wanting to escape other expenses for a student like books, uniforms, extra activities, find all ways to reject an application,' she alleged. While the Act has framed certain rules like location of the student's house within one km radius of the school, the same technicality was being armed to reject students, she added. With such technicalities in practice, rejections become much simpler for them, Ms. Umamaheshwari stated. Not just the rejection, but the harsh attitude of school administration towards students admitted through RTE and the discriminatory practices towards them force the parents to remove their wards from the school, she said. Subbaiah, a parent, whose son studied under RTE in a private school at Chrompet in Chennai from class 1 to 3, due to the demand for half payment of fees from the school, moved his son to a nearby government school. He said, as they demanded him to pay half the actual fees citing additional spending on school events, they could not afford to pay the fees. 'In the mid-academic year, I had to remove him from that school,' he added. As he was uninterested in fighting with the school administration, he said he did not resist. Woe of parents Mr. Anand Raj, listing down the troubles the parents have to face from the schools, said that the school administrations degrade the students studying under the Act by identifying them in a classroom by calling out their names. While it would morally destabilise the students, exorbitant fees demanded for extra-curricular activities, workshops and study materials would eventually stress parents who mostly could not afford to pay them, he added. A School Education Department Government Order 173 section 8(2) dated January 8, 2011, clarified that textbooks, library, uniform, information and communication, technology, sports equipment among others should be provided for free of cost and no difference should be shown towards permitting students to access them. Citing the order, he alleged that most of the schools were not adhering to the G.O. 'Even many well-established schools frequently charge students for various reasons. After a certain time, the parents would have to stop questioning to safeguard the children's education,' he noted. A School Education Department official- private school wing said that the rejection of RTE applications for technical reasons has been reduced with the direct involvement of officials during the admission process. But he agreed that schools were charging the students under the RTE Act for various reasons. Fee collection 'As the administrations say they were not paid by the government for the extracurricular activities and sports, we have to let them collect the fees unless it does not affect the students,' he stated. However, the official said that they were instructing schools not to exclude RTE students from any school activities and they have also been warned of actions that would follow.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘10k unrecognised schools operating in Bihar, Jharkhand'
Over 10,000 unrecognised school are operational in Jharkhand and Bihar, with over 1.6 million students enrolled in those schools, in violation of the Right to Education Act, data from the minutes of a recent Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting of the education ministry has shown. With 5,879 such schools, Jharkhand has the highest number of unrecognised schools in the country with an enrolment of 837,897 students and 46,421 teachers, the data showed, while Bihar has 4,915 such schools with an enrolment of 775,704 students and 42,377 teachers. The observation came during PAB meetings for the approval of budget and plans under Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025-26 with officials from all states between March and April 2025. During the meeting, the ministry flagged that unrecognised schools violate section 19 of the RTE Act, 2009, which mandates pre-existing schools to meet prescribed norms within three years of the Act's commencement. Unrecognised schools are private, unaided institutions operating without formal government recognition and regulatory frameworks. 'The Act also mandates that if such schools fail to fulfil the norms, the recognition shall be withdrawn, and the school shall cease to function,' the minutes of the meetings uploaded on ministry's website recently said. Further, the ministry has both states to 'take action and issue suitable instructions to the concerned authorities to recognise these unrecognised schools or to take appropriate action as deemed fit at the earliest.' While the ministry used data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE)+ 2023-24 report, these records are not publicly available in the report which was released in January this year. While officials in the education ministry did not respond to HT's request for comment, an official in Jharkhand said that directions for appropriate action have already been issued to the schools. 'These [Unrecognised] schools started functioning before the implementation of RTE Act 2009. The state government has already issued directions for recognition of such schools. We have formed district-level recognition committees for recognition of such schools,' Sachidanand Diyendu Tigga, administrative officer at Jharkhand education project council, said. According to the minutes of the PAB meetings, the ministry has also flagged 'large variation' in reporting of data about out-of-school children (OoSC) by Bihar and Jharkhand on the education ministry's Project Appraisal, Budgeting, Achievements and Data Handling System (PRABANDH) portal and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey. The ministry advised both the states to 'monitor the data uploaded on the portal by responsible officer under the supervision of the State Project Director (SPD).' 'We will look into discrepancies in the number of OoSCs. We are running the campaign 'back to school' to enroll those students who are not going to the schools,' Tigga said. HT reached out to officials from the Bihar Education Project Council, but was yet to receive any response.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
No better time to reform RTE Act implementation
A recent furore over delay in opening the admission portal for Right to Education Act for the academic year 2025-26 has not only informed people about the existence of such an Act but it has also opened up a discussion for the regulation of the Act and its implementation. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, enacted in India on August 4, 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14. While the portal would usually be opened by mid-April and the admission process would end by May, the unusual delay of over a month has put the parents waiting for admission under RTE, at a crossroads. Despite facing dilutions, under RTE, a considerable number of students looking for education in private schools benefited, but the recent developments in the centre-State conflict in releasing fund meant for school education have directly affected the admission processes. Though the School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi recently said that he had written a letter to the Centre seeking details about the pending dues under the RTE Act, the State announced that it would bear the Centre's dues too. As the Madras High Court was hearing a case pertaining to the delay in admissions under RTE Act, based on a petition filed by V. Eswaran, an administrator of the Coimbatore-based organisation Marumalarchi Iyakkam, the court has directed the Union Government to submit details of funds due to Tamil Nadu under the 25% reservation quota mandated by the RTE Act. Anand Raj, a social activist based in Madurai, said that a Right to Information Act reply from the State government regarding the fund released by the Union government for the RTE Act from 2009-10 till 2018-19 revealed that while ₹20,300 crore was to be released, only ₹8,446 crore was released. He noted that the issue of Union holding back the funds meant for the Act was not a new one but had been in practice for several years. Apart from the political motivations which affected the implementation of the Act, the actual admission practice, on several occasions, has come under criticism, owing to the prevailing gaps in implementation. S. Umamaheshwari, an education activist, said that citing very minor differences, the private schools, awaiting reasons to reject applications under RTE Act, abruptly reject admissions. 'Though the State government reimburses the schools, private schools, wanting to escape other expenses for a student like books, uniforms, extra activities, find all ways to reject an application,' she alleged. While the Act has framed certain rules like location of the student's house within one km radius of the school, the same technicality was being armed to reject students, she added. With such technicalities in practice, rejections become much simpler for them, Ms. Umamaheshwari stated. Not just the rejection, but the harsh attitude of school administration towards students admitted through RTE and the discriminatory practices towards them force the parents to remove their wards from the school, she said. Subbaiah, a parent, whose son studied under RTE in a private school at Chrompet in Chennai from class 1 to 3, due to the demand for half payment of fees from the school, moved his son to a nearby government school. He said, as they demanded him to pay half the actual fees citing additional spending on school events, they could not afford to pay the fees. 'In the mid academic year, I had to remove him from that school,' he added. As he was uninterested in fighting with the school administration, he said he did not resist. Mr. Anand Raj, listing down the troubles the parents have to face from the schools, said that the school administrations degrade the students studying under the Act by identifying them in a classroom by calling out their names. While it would morally destabilise the students, exorbitant fees demanded for extra-curricular activities, workshops and study materials would eventually stress parents who mostly could not afford to pay them, he added. A School Education Department Government Order 173 section 8(2) dated January 8, 2011, clarified that textbooks, library, uniform, information and communication, technology, sports equipment among others should be provided for free of cost and no difference should be shown towards permitting students to access them. Citing the order, he alleged that most of the schools were not adhering to the G.O. 'Even many well-established schools frequently charge students for various reasons. After a certain time, the parents would have to stop questioning to safeguard the children's education,' he noted. A School Education Department official- private school wing said that the rejection of RTE applications for technical reasons has been reduced with the direct involvement of officials during the admission process. But he agreed that schools were charging the students under the RTE Act for various reasons. 'As the administrations say they were not paid by the government for the extracurricular activities and sports, we have to let them collect the fees unless it does not affect the students,' he stated. However, the official said that they were instructing schools not to exclude RTE students from any school activities and they have also been warned of actions that would follow.
Hans India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Denied Education: Private Schools Flout 25% RTE Quota in Jogulamba Gadwal
Gadwal: The All India Ambedkar Yuvajana Sangham, led by District President Macharla Prakash and Gattu Mandal President Balgera Mojesh, has issued a strong demand for strict implementation of the 25% free seat quota under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in all private schools across the district. Speaking at a press briefing, Prakash emphasized that private schools are blatantly violating Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act by denying free admission to children from economically weaker sections and instead charging exorbitant fees ranging from ₹20,000 to ₹1 lakh. "Education is a constitutional right, not a privilege. If schools continue to ignore the law, we will organize a district-wide agitation,' Prakash warned. Despite previous petitions to the District Collector — who has assured support and promised implementation this year — not a single private school in the district has complied, according to the organization. The Sangham demands: Immediate enforcement of the 25% RTE quota. Transparent admissions and action against schools charging illegal fees. Awareness campaigns to inform parents of their children's rights. District-level monitoring committees for RTE implementation. This press release is intended to urge both officials and the public to take immediate steps to protect the educational rights of disadvantaged children.
