Assessment of Implementation of RTE Act

The Central Government reviews and monitors implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 periodically with the States and Union Territories at different fora, including the State Education Ministers’ Conferences. An independent concurrent financial review is also undertaken to cover all States within two years. Educational data on outcomes are collected through Unified District Implementation System of Education (UDISE) every year. The status of these evaluations and monitoring is placed in the public domain on the Ministry’s website. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the designated scheme to meet the object of RTE Act, 2009. The combined RTE-SSA programme is reviewed twice every year by a Joint Review Mission (JRM) comprising independent experts and members of external funding agencies, covering all States by rotation. The last JRM was held from 2nd to 12th February, 2015. The major challenge in meeting the objective of the RTE Act is ensuring quality education for all children at elementary level. 

The no-detention policy has resulted in improvement of retention of children in schools. This is reflected in the decline in annual average dropout rate of children which is 4.15% at elementary level as per UDISE, 2014-15. Some States have requested for review of no-detention policy. Reports and views of several State Governments reflect that standard of elementary education has come down due to no-detention policy. 

Section 7 of the RTE Act, 2009 provides that the Central and State Governments have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out the provisions of the RTE Act. Allocation of outlays of the States under SSA are made on the basis of the approved Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWP&B) prepared by the States based on their requirements. The central share released to States/UTs under SSA during the last five years and the current year is at Annexure. 

The Government of India has introduced several measures to facilitate the implementation of the SSA to meet the objectives of the RTE Act by (i) launching ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’- a foundational sub-programme under SSA to improve early reading and writing with comprehension and early mathematics; (ii) launching ‘Rashtriya Avishkaar Abhiyan’ – a convergent framework to make Science, Mathematics and Technology exciting for children; (iii) sharing an exemplar on continuous and comprehensive evaluation in elementary education developed by the National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT); (iv) sharing learning outcomes by class and stage of education brought out by the NCERT; (v) conducting National Achievement Surveys for Classes III, V and VIII to track student learning outcomes; (vi) bringing out guidelines against discrimination in schools; (vii) monitoring of States to set up decentralized grievance redressal systems under the RTE Act; and (viii) launching of National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation called “Shala Sidhhi”, which is an initiative aimed at evaluating each school as an institution, with the intent to improve the quality of school education. 

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.