Right to Education – who should ensure it?
The chant of Hare Rama Hare Krishna was still playing in my ears and I was contemplating the mundaneness of human life while I was on my way to interact with the women of Bukkaraya Samudram mandal. The visit was part of the study for a DfID project that was researching the short route of accountability through the means and tools introduced by the project in the chosen government schools in the mandal.
The meeting started with a prayer song. I was preparing for an ordinary day where few women would share their thoughts on the project interventions. Little did I realize that it would be a great day of learning which would showcase the community empowerment which was the project’s chief outcome at the end of the project period.
It was a healthy interaction between the women and the school headmasters who gathered to discuss the impact of the interventions and the role of community partnership in improving the outcomes in schools. In one of the interactions a Village Organization leader started sharing the plight of government schools in her area. She and the others lamented that while they were mobilizing children to join the government schools the department was idling away their time by not providing them education professionals to teach the students.
Fortunately for the first time I saw the government headmasters being sympathetic towards the women and supporting them in their struggle. The tete a tete lasted more than 30 minutes and it was a sight to watch the two parties, the VOs on one side and the government officials on the other trying to defend each other. The sheer resilience of the women power awed me and gave a hope that the community if (over) empowered will prove to be the most effective agencies for enforcing education act.
The entry of the Mandal Education Officer calmed the argument for some time but when he stood up to clarify the issue the women doubled up to question the “authority” who was accountable as a department representative to maintain the education standard in the mandal. In the melee the officials shrugged the argument declaring that it is the government’s lookout to provide machinery for implementation of RTE.
This was one of the finest arguments between the state and the non state entities I have ever witnessed.
Though the government gave to its citizens the right to demand for quality education, the basic question still remains- Who ensures it? There was a community on one side that was gearing up to demand its right and the other side was the department that was still stifling under its own system. It was a clear case of promise and betrayal. When the MEO answered that the school would be provided with sufficient staff by the next academic year, one of the women had the strongest point “why should our children wait for one more year? Why should they be penalized because of your inability to provide support to the educational institutions”?
Though there are organizational pitfalls in implementing rules and rights it is the duty of the government to assess its capability before promulgating laws for citizens’ benefit. The parents or for that matter the children will never wait for volunteer or para teachers who were busy preparing for DSC or TET tests. The move is well appreciated that the government is trying to recruit trained teachers for its school however it cannot excuse itself from the commitment citing the above reasons.
With RTE, equal access to quality education becomes a salient feature for all the Indian children residing in different economic and social zones. The state is accountable to create equal access to quality education, which meets the needs of all children in an integrated setting. When the communities are getting actively engaged in the event of the century they should be guided sufficiently to approach the departments that are responsible for enforcing and implementing the law. When the government schools are losing out in competition to private schools due to vital reasons, the agency should have assessed what it takes to implement the law.
Another question by a woman participant, the power of which I thought would blow all of us into pieces was to a government school principal. She encountered him by asking “where are your children studying sir, are they in a government school or a private school?” An uncomfortable silence pervaded the atmosphere in the room which though lasted few moments apparently seemed like ages. There was a relief when the kind leader took the question positively and explained about parental feelings when it comes to their children’s education and future.
Majority of the developmental projects have been imposed in a top down approach by the government to improve the socio economic conditions of the poor and the marginalized. Since the beneficiaries were not involved in the plans for their own growth and progress several betterment policies failed to produce the intended results. This type of planning widened the gap sharply. If the government is really committed to remove barriers to RTE then it should act on a set of principles arrived in consensus with different players who are veterans in the field, who worked at grass root levels more passionately than the government officers. India is a vast country with hundreds of communities living in interior villages, few of which are still deprived of basic amenities. In such situations who else can vouch for implementation of government laws more genuinely than people and the people’s organizations working in those villages.
Though the community is getting engaged in the local schools as School Management Committees the platform is yet to be strengthened to achieve the desired outcomes. Community participation can greatly contribute to educational development and help the government in achieving the goal of Education for All in the country. Sustainable development can be made possible if community involvement is promoted aggressively. For once, the community should be given a chance to assess its needs and determine the course of action for its own betterment.
School Management Committees are not created for standalone purposes for schools to showcase the successful community participation in educational programs. The Committees are powerful parent body representations that can revolutionize the concept of monitoring and inspection. It has been ascertained by many a bodies like ADB, DfID and USAID that community participation can be encouraged as one of the key strategies to develop accountability in our schools. Agreed, that the SMCs constituting of parents from low socio economic background mainly for rural schools can be trained for raise their voice so that our schools benefit for their participation.
Once the mantle is given to the SMCs then there is every likelihood that the structure and quality of our schools may change. Though they cannot replace the education professionals in the domains of quality provision, their support can help the schools perform better. They represent a great majority of the demand side, the pressure of which will enable the supply side to rethink and modify its strategy of provision. They can be the main supply agencies of teaching staff so that the deficit is filled in locally.
Apart from the government the local schools should bank more on the local community to support their existence in the villages than the unions or department offices that are sitting miles away from their locales. If the relationship between the schools and community is explored for mutual benefit, India can then prove to the world that it is not the largest democracy only in constitutional terms but also in allowing its empowered community to monitor and inspect the government services, a picture perfect example of public private partnership. Institutionalization of SMCs will ensure commitment, accountability and efficiency of practices from both the sides.
Though it is imperative that the government takes up the responsibility of good governance for its masses, agendas of massive size cannot be achieved by single players alone. It requires coordination and consensus among partners to work together.
About the author –
Ms Anitha Jagathkar
Ms Anitha, is the Project Manager with CfBT Education Services, India. She led her team in evaluating various alternative educational programs in India. She has assessed several schools for institutional effectiveness in various districts of Andhra Pradesh. She has also authored several baseline reports and drafted school improvement plans for both public and private schools. As a Leadership trainer she mentored school principals to improve the provision in their schools. Currently she is pursuing her Ph.d at National School of Leadership, Pune.
She can be contacted at ajagathkar@gmail.com.
