“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

‘EDUCATION’- As the word translates education means to acquire knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs in different aspects of our life. It is a method of learning and gaining knowledge.

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The education system of India

Like in antique times India had the Gurukul system. In the Gurukul system, anyone who wants to study can go to the guru (teacher) house or his ashram and demand to be taught. If the student is taken by the guru, he would then stay at the guru’s place and would gain knowledge. The guru taught everything the student wanted to learn, from Sanskrit to Mathematics and to Metaphysics. All learning was nearly related to nature and to a distinctive feature of life and was not only confined to retain some information.

And after that, the school policy came to India. In which the school was split into different sections that are from primary junior to senior. As for the age of the child and understanding level, the child is directed to that section. Here, they gain knowledge practically as well as theoretically. As per their interest in diverse fields, they select different subjects and take a different opportunity and proceed towards different fields whether it is consist of engineering, doctor, lawyer, teacher etc.

The Constitutional provision safeguarding the Right to education

The 86^th amendment of the constitution in India in 2002 got inserted Article 21-A which is, free and mandatory education for all the children between 6 to 14 years old. This article made education a fundamental right for all children.

The right to education (RTE) Act, 2009 under article 21-A, means that every child has the right to study in the school in a conventional way such that it must satisfy essential rules and regulations.

Article 21-A and RTE act came into force on 1 April 2010. The RTE act primarily supports and encourages “free and compulsory” education. Here, free education means that none of the children is permitted to pay any fee or any kind of charges for completing and getting education except for the child whose parents are there who are able of paying fees and affording all other kinds of expenses for their child related to studies. And compulsory education means that it is the duty of the government and involving local authorities to check for proper attendance of the students, to ensure proper admittance and also to take care for the fulfillment of fundamental education of every child.

The RIGHT TO EDUCATION (RTE) ACT, consist of the following measures-

• Every child has the fundamental right to free and compulsory education.
• The RTE act makes rules for the non-admitted students to be allowed at a proper age to the specified class.
• It specifies distinctive responsibilities to the local authorities and government to ensure to provide free and compulsory education.
• It also lays down rules concerning Pupil-Teacher Ratios (PTRs).
• It also guarantees that the employment of every teacher whether in urban or in rural areas is in a balanced way, and should maintain a proper ratio.
• It also lay down rules for maintaining the infrastructure of the schools, proper working hours for the teachers etc.
• It also recommends employing trained and well-educated teachers.

The Right to Education act also forbids some of the issues

• Any sort of mental harassment over any student or physical assault.
• Capitation fees, which means that the amount of fee taken by the institution which is more than the designated fee.
• It also prevents the working of the school without its identification.

The RTE act wants to form an education system in which every child should be permitted to get education freely and he or she should be free from any kind of fear regarding harassment, unequal treatment etc. This act wants to build the system in which full knowledge regarding the subject and moral values should be provided and none of the children could be rested deprived of their fundamental and the most basic rights.

Some steps that should be taken by the Government and local authorities and also by the parents for increasing awareness regarding education are-

• In RTE “compulsory education” creates a significant responsibility for the government as well as for the local authority to ensure admission of every child of the age 6-14 years.
• It is the duty of the parents to maintain proper attendance of their child.
• Fulfilling elementary education of each and every child under the age bracket of 6-14 years.
• The government should try to secure proper training facilities of the teachers.
• It should ensure a good elementary education that should be according to the norms.
• It is the duty of the local authorities that the child belonging to the weaker section of the society and anyone who is disabled should not be discriminated from the other students.

There are certain responsibilities of the school and the teachers too.

• The teacher designated should perform the norms under sub-section (1) of section 23.
• A teacher should be regular and punctual towards his responsibility.
• It is the duty of the school to maintain proper discipline, to make mandatory the elementary education and try to take care that every child is being treated well or not and gaining proper knowledge.

Talking about facts

The government has taken many important steps and initiatives for increasing the literacy rate in India. If we see the data of the year 2001, the National Literacy Mission which was held in 2001 has given the data which reveals that in India 64.84% of the persons were literate in which 75.26% were males and 53.67% were females. At that time the largest literacy rate was in the state of Kerala in which 90.86% persons were literate among them 94.24% were males and 87.72% were females. The feeblest literacy rates were in Bihar in which only 47% of the persons were literate among which 59.68 were males and 33.12% were females.

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