RTI WITH RTE

Dear All

In continuation, Right to Information (RTI) will be the powerful tool for the effective utilization of the Right to Education (RTE). I am going to be part of the RTE Seminar to be held in the month of October 2012.

It is the known fact that RTE insists for Free and Compulsory Education (FCE) and allotment of 25% seats in all unaided private school (except unaided minority schools) for children from underprivileged background.

Some of the challenges of RTE in the State of Andhra Pradesh include:

• 12 Lakh children are out of schools

• slow in implementation

• in spite of Supreme Court order, private schools response is very poor for allotting 25% of their seats for the children from underprivileged background

• Govt not ready to fund the studies of these children in private schools

• as per the GO, private schools should need to open gates for underprivileged children only after all the seats in neighbouring govt schools got filled

• this GO is the major limitation for the admissions and advantage for the private school to deny the admissions for this group of children

• some looks for these children as charity rather than their right

• poor monitoring of what the schools have been doing

• most of them feels RTE as a SSA

• no redress mechanism exists for parents to express their 

   grievances

• no blue print of the planning is given to the schools

• poor awareness among the parents who should avail the benefits

• several other issues.

These are the real challenges for the poor implementation of the RTE. When RTI is added with RTE, hope many of these challenges will be resolved for the effective implementation of RTE.

In spite of the positive hope, still AWARENESS ON RTI & RTE is on the top priority.

More will be posted on these key tools for the mainstreaming of all the children irrespective of their backgrounds in general and particularly the one with special needs.

Looking forward

All the Best