Month: August 2010

FAQs on the RtE

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 was passed by the Parliament in August 2009, and after receiving Presidential assent immediately thereafter, it was notified for implementation from April 1, 2010. The 86th amendment that provides the children of India, in the age group 6 to 14 years, a fundamental right to free and compulsory education was simultaneously notified the same day. It has now been three months since the implementation of the Act but questions are still looming in the minds of people. The Act is still a puzzle to many. To ease the understanding of the Act, Vinod Raina, a member of the CABE committee that drafted the Act, has put together a few FAQs. While the original document contains more than 80 questions, Teacher Plus presents here a few of the more relevant ones. What was the sequence of events leading to the 2009 Act? After the 86th amendment in December 2002 the following actions took place: 2003: The Free and Compulsory Education For Children Bill, 2003 (NDA government) 2004: The Free and Compulsory Education For Children Bill, 2004 (NDA government) 2005: The Right to Education Bill, 2005 (June) (CABE Bill) (UPA I government) 2005: The Right to Education Bill, 2005 (August) (UPA I government) 2006: Central legislation discarded. States advised to make their own Bills based on The Model Right to Education Bill, 2006 (UPA I government) 2008/9: Central legislation revived. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Bill, 2008, introduced/ passed in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. President’s assent in August 2009. However, the notification of the Act and the 86th amendment, issued on Feb 19, 2010 in the Gazette of India, stated that implementation will begin from April 1, 2010, eight months after the presidential assent. (UPA II government). Notice that the word ‘Right’ was missing in the first two drafts of the Bill and was used from the 2005 CABE bill onwards. The central legislation was dropped in 2006 in preference to state legislations based on a token model bill draft, for the recurring ‘lack of central resources’ argument, but it was intense public pressure based on independent financial estimates that made it possible to revive and bring back the central legislation in 2008. Where do existing State Acts on Education stand in relation to the RtE Act? They would have to be brought in conformity with the Central Act. As per article 254 of the Constitution reproduced below, a State Act cannot violate the

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From all of us to each of them

Sometimes wisdom comes from the most casual and incidental of conversations. Discussing a vision statement made by an educational institution, a gentleman I recently met remarked that he had insisted that the word “all” be changed to “each” in the phrase “impart quality education to all children”. He went on to explain that a broad term like “all” actually ends up being so general and all-encompassing that it stands for nothing. Saying that, “all of us” should take responsibility for the state of education or about environmental pollution (for instance) amounts to saying that none of us is actually responsible. So by insisting that teachers pledge to ensure quality education for “all” children ensures that she or he does not ensure it for each individual child, but in a general sense, for the faceless numbers in the classroom. In one sense, this is the general absolution of responsibility of many institutions (and individuals) for the particular in favour of the general. However, if children are to learn, a teacher must perform a careful balancing act between the general and the specifi c. Macro-level preparation such as creating syllabi, lesson outlining and setting broad learning outcomes must necessarily take a broader view that works for the entire class. But then, we do know also that the “entire class” is composed of many individual children, each with his or her own need and level of understanding and performance. There must be enough variation in the delivery of lessons to cater to these differing abilities and levels of understanding. Having given all the children a pre-constructed basket of concepts and facts, the teacher must sit down with each child (or organize some other form of interaction) and make sure that this child takes away what he or she needs in order to achieve the learning outcome specifi ed. This also means that the watchful eye of the teacher must be trained on each child with more care, so that variations in learning styles and diffi culties (and capabilities) are catered to on an individual level. The two lead stories in this issue’s cover package focus on testing and assessment. The fi rst looks at how children can be taught to cope with a standardized test, while the second examines one approach to continuous comprehensive evaluation. Both methods require the engagement of the teacher at an unfamiliarly high level. But both articles demonstrate that this is not impossible; that it is entirely possible and feasible to achieve a minimum

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Priya in lever land

Cynthia D’Costa Priya lived in a small village named Vidynagar. She was quite excited. You see, her tenth birthday was fast approaching. This time she was expecting her cousins from the city to join her. Melosa, Aden and Seon had all said that they would surely come to her birthday party. “Maa, please bake a walnut cake. And for dinner, I would love some aloo parathas!” When Priya’s birthday arrived, she could barely wait for the clock to strike six in the evening when it would be party time. Auntie Geeta had said that they would be there by 5 p.m. Priya’s mother insisted that she sleep for a while in the afternoon. But hardly had Priya shut her eyes when she heard a loud noise. It seemed to come from the kitchen. Slowly she tiptoed from there. The author is a teacher educator at Pushpanjali College of Education, Maharashtra. She can be reached at

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Recession – the cause and the effect

Are your students unenthusiastic about their economics classes? Do you feel you are losing their attention too often? This article, using the topic of recession, gives you tips to engage your students and make you economics classes interactive.

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RTE Act – Issues in implementation

Indian education is slowly coming to terms with the RtE even as the debates continue. Adjustments and compromises are being made both by the government and the various stakeholders. The ongoing RtE debate in Teacher Plus.

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Seating solutions

The row wise arrangement of benches and desks may be convenient in most Indian classrooms but this is not a very inspiring seating arrangement. Here’s how you can shake away the boredom and reinvent your classroom despite the small space.

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