RTE Hiccups

RTE Hiccups

After the Right to Education (RTE) Act euphoria, now the pain of the reality. Almost all State governments now want the Centre to increase its proposed share from 55 per cent to between 75 per cent and 90 per cent. Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh want the Centre to give all funds. However, the States do support the Centre’s move to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of six and 14 years, and believe that the new education initiative is unique, welcome, revolutionary and long overdue. And States like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have no problem with the funding pattern proposed by the Centre. But why are most of the States against the Centre’s RTE funding formula? Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has an answer: ‘‘The States lack sufficient resources to implement the RTE Act, and it is the responsibility of the Centre to meet cent per cent expenditure on this head.’’ The main challenges are shortage of teachers and infrastructure and ways and means of ensuring that every child in the 6-14 age group is indeed availing of free and compulsory education, which is a Herculean task. While the Centre would have done well to address those problems first before effecting the RTE Act, on their part the States seem to be reluctant to cut down on unnecessary, anti-people government expenses and divert them to the education head. It is a matter of will.