Right to Education deadline today
Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 30
Classrooms, playgrounds, ramps for the disabled, water, toilets and qualified teachers—the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act passed in 2009 promises these and tad more—free and compulsory education to all aged 6-14. In Nagaland, though, these promises sound like an insensitive crack on the back.
In Kohima, a school effectively translates into a toilet during vacations because there are no doors and windows, just open gaps. A truck “fell into” the mat walls of another school, which has not been repaired to date because the Village Council has been unable to plan it out (thank you, communitisation). Children remain on an extended vacation.
The Right to Education (RTE), as colloquially known, has set two deadlines for all states. By March 31 (Sunday) this year, infrastructure requirements set by the RTE will have to be met, or schools face the prospect of closure. Many government schools in Nagaland, suggest commentators, will qualify for the closure.
“There is no structure, forget about infrastructure,” smirks a teacher. “Government schools in the villages are more like cowsheds with no walls, benches or blackboards. Neither teachers nor students bother to go to such schools,” she informs. Parents prefer to send pupils to private schools, as expensive as they may be, while teachers prefer not to go to schools that are in villages, even if on the outskirts of cities like Dimapur.
For parents of disabled children, the alley is blind. “I have been sending her to a Montessori,” says the parent of 14-year-old Longti who was born with cerebral palsy. “The state may not acknowledge the right of a disabled child to education but, as a parent, it is my duty to give her the same opportunities to education and independence as other children,” she asserts. The government provides no assistance to parents like her. “If the government could meet us halfway and make the provisions of the RTE felt in schools, it would be significant,” reflects Longti’s mother. The RTE requires a school to provide at least a ramp for the disabled but that is a far cry for a state that has appointed teachers to schools that don’t exist.
As a primary school teacher found out. Last year, he proceeded to join his new post in a village in Kohima district only to find the whole school missing! “Imagine the status of schools in Mon or Tuensang then,” laments Rosemary Dzüvichü, a senior educationist. “A vast amount of funds are sanctioned to the state under the SSA and RMSA schemes—if whole school buildings are missing, then where are these funds?” she asks.
“The level of funds coming to Nagaland from the Government of India is not satisfactory,” responds a senior officer from the Department of School Education. “I cannot be expected to pay for infrastructure from my salary, can I?” he quips, even as Rs. 97.98 crore was sanctioned from the Centre to Nagaland under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme alone in 2011-12.
The other deadline set for schools is March 31, 2015, by when all teachers will need to have passed a Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET). In a recent speech, the new Governor of Nagaland, Ashwani Kumar, has stressed on this. The Nagaland state claims to have conducted one TET so far though teachers claim no knowledge of this. Either way, the gap to be filled by 2015 is large (10,863 teachers to be trained and passed), based on which Nagaland, alongside 12 other states, has asked the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to “relax the norms of minimum qualification” for teachers.
Relaxation will be needed, no doubt. “Some in-service teachers who come to us for training cannot even write a sentence in English. We struggle to teach them basics,” says a teacher from one of the six District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in Nagaland. The training, she says, makes a world of difference to the teacher’s personality and ability to teach. Alas, with just two colleges for Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), the 2015 deadline might prove to be too much for Nagaland state.
“We have introduced correspondence courses for the training of teachers since last year, and the Government of India has been emphasizing more on this aspect,” informs the senior officer from the Department of School Education. The state is understaffed, and teachers leaving to train before taking the TET will leave many schools wanting.
The problem, however, is more than of number and quality reconciliation—it is of discipline and political will. “Students coming to colleges from interior districts cannot write a sentence, while those from Dimapur or Kohima can. In a single class, the knowledge gap is vast,” explains P.S. Lorin, Principal of Tetso College in Dimapur. With sub-standard primary education, teachers find it debilitating to train students at the tertiary level. “There has to be political will to appoint qualified teachers and to avoid proxy system at the basic level,” he insists.
“The biggest challenge,” for Dr. Fr. Abraham Lotha, Principal of St. Joseph’s College, Jakhama, “is the government is not convinced that education is the backbone of society.” According to Lotha, people are afraid that the level of education, especially at the higher level will fall, even though “literacy level” of the state remains high. A government “unfriendly to education” can send children to school but not teach them to learn.
“Only a law that requires the children of policy makers to go to government schools will change anything,” suggests a parent, providing a silver line of thought to the Right to Education that remains wholly grey as of today’s deadline.
