Right to Education- a different perspective
by piscianemperor
Every once in a while, the Indian government comes out with a gem of a law. Last time, it was the Right to Information (RTI) which finally enabled the man on the street to figure out what exactly goes behind those closed bureaucratic doors.
Yesterday, i.e. 1st April 2010, another landmark bill was passed in the Indian parliament- the Right to Education Act.
For those of you who aren’t clear about what exactly the act entails, let me explain- amongst other things, it makes 25% reservation for the underprivileged compulsory in all schools- including private schools, whether aided/ non-aided. Excellent idea that, on first thought. Of course, the fees will be waved off/nominal for these kids. And already, the private-schools bodies have started protesting against the bill, approaching the Supreme Court to get it revoked. The bill ensures that these private schools cannot find loop holes to get around it. They can’t segregate the poor kids from the rich kids. No discrimination, no separate morning school for the rich kid, and afternoon one for the poor kid or anything.
As I said, great initiative.
Only, I had a strange thought as I was having dinner in front of the TV yesterday. You remember the time when you were in school, and your friend got a nice shiny new toy?? Or a fancy compass-box ? These days however, with the ‘upgradation’ of kids in schools, the ‘compass boxes’ are replaced by ipods and other expensive stuff. You know, in my school, I think they allow 5th grade kids to have cell phones. Getting back to the point- so you remember going back home and telling your mom that you want a similar shiny toy too? And then throwing a tantrum/ sulking when folks at home refused to entertain you?
So what happens, when the poor kids start going to ordinarily-rich-kids-schools? Will they always have a complex of being poorer, and not having all that stuff that 75% of their classmates have? Imagine- my mom washes dishes and sweeps the floor at your mom’s place. I’ll feel very nice about it, will I? Will the poor kid’s parents even want their kids to attend school at such places? The more I think about this, and the more I find a recipe for disaster cooking up in my head.
I’ve been working with an NGO (Akanksha) for the past few months, and have interacted with some slum kids closely. As my friend had pointed out once, the underprivileged kids are exposed to some pretty nasty things at an early age- things, that well-to-do people don’t expose their children to. So you have here a confluence of two different kinds of little minds- one, which has had real world bad experience, and other, which has had the internet world super-exposure. And grade one, these kids are not going to have the maturity to learn from each other/ celebrate the differences sort of thing. Its going to be a stark contrast. Fullstop.
What are your views on this? Drop in a comment.
ur right… Poor & unprivileged kids are exposed to nasty things at a very early age.. They also face all sort of exploitation.. Its gonna be tough for these kids to mingle with the rich kids in pvt schools.. Everything has 2 sides… so does this bill… What’s imp is that, the govt is doing something for the education of children..
“They can’t segregate the poor kids from the rich kids. No discrimination, no separate morning school for the rich kid, and afternoon one for the poor kid or anything.” – Love this. I’m so glad this is finally the case.
That’s a valid point. I agree the ones that are very young will be disappointed, but as they grow older maybe they can take it in the sense that you gotta work towards what you want. I’m looking at it positively and I realize it will be hard, because once a new gadget or anything hits the market, then it becomes this massive craze, where everyone suddenly WANTS it!
More than anything I hope the poor kids aspire to reach the point, where they can get what they want!
Since we are on this topic they should seriously do something about teachers slapping, and hitting the kids. Or have they done something on that yet? Sorry, I’m completely out of loop on this.
I don’t know I never found the idea of terrifying the hell out of kids and getting them to learn something extremely appealing. Fear works short term, but over time people start to get past the fear and start to rebel. I’d this teacher in sixth, and she taught chemistry. She had this habit of throwing chalks around, and she intentionally hit it on the face. Seriously.. sometimes I would wonder sitting in that class what would happen, if at the end of the period everyone picked up all the chalks that were on the floor and tossed it back on her in return! :P :P FUN! I know it seems mean, but seriously she had NO right to throw chalks around that carelessly!
Now that I think about it for a ridiculously silly subject like chemistry and a teacher that could NOT teach, except was an expert at throwing chalks around the entire class had to sit there thinking whether we would be the target of the chalk attack.
@pranali
Yeah, as I said, great initiative. BTW, I am not able to comment on your blog. Rather, there is no such place to comment except that chat window. You don’t like comments ? :)
@Mia
“More than anything I hope the poor kids aspire to reach the point, where they can get what they want!”
But the thing is, I doubt such young kids are going to have the maturity to aspire to be great, right at the start. There needs to be some kind of orientation done for both the rich and poor kids, and some sensitization done for the teachers too.
Lol about the throwing chalks back thingy. I like. :D
Yeah. these days there are strict laws against capital punishment. It does happen every once in a while in some far flung place or something. But its definitely less, and its a cognizable offense.
“But the thing is, I doubt such young kids are going to have the maturity to aspire to be great, right at the start.” Very true!
“There needs to be some kind of orientation done for both the rich and poor kids, and some sensitization done for the teachers too.” – Yeah, this has to be done, especially the sensitization. They shouldn’t be treated with a lot of sympathy that it makes them feel insecure, and they shouldn’t be treated them horribly either.
From what I have seen of high school at least outside there seems to be this huge deal over ‘cool’ and ‘uncool’. And just cus these kids can’t afford the latest ipod or something, then that’s no reason for anyone to mock them!
Lets be a little more supportive and see to what can be done (than said).
Everything that goes around is circumstantial, nothing can be done about that. More important than any other change, we need a change in attitude, and that, I guess is going to take a while…
As an idea, it’s great. It’s not exactly new-it was mentioned in our constitution and was supposed to be in action since the 70s.
You’ve raised an interesting point, but ultimately, the advantages of going to a good school may just outweigh the difficulties, provided the school takes a healthy attitude. And kids from grade one may not pose too many problems, teenagers may not be so accepting. I guess it all comes down to how each school formulates a policy to implement it, how to deal with any incidents, etc.
Actually, my problem with the bill is that it’s too general. We have schools in India that range from swanky international schools to schools that don’t even have a proper building. Putting all of them under one law seems twisted to me. Consider the requirements of the bill-the stipulated teacher salaries, lack of general disciplinary guidelines for teachers,the school management committees, compulsory recognition, etc. and then consider the ground reality in India. It’s going to be impossibly hard to put it into practice completely. I really hope though, that the government does actually try to implement it.
@Mia:
At such a young age, i think its more about basic raw human feelings than cool or uncool…
@mugdha:
Yeah that’s right. Attitude change takes time though. Just pointing out the tooting problems.
Circumstantial by way of what any kid experiences due to what is going on around him is right, there’s no helping that; but by way of some teacher having a bad day and taking it out on some kid by throwing chalks is not. If you can’t handle the challenges that come with handling little kids, quit.
@kruttika:
Two excellent things you pointed out- first, the advantages outweigh the downs of it.
Yeah, it all depends on how the implementation is done. As pointed out in the earlier comment, enough of talk has already been done. Time to act.
My blog doesn’t have a comment section. The actually template didn’t have one… I’ll come up with it soon.. till then u could replay on the tagboard… Hope I dont make you wait too long…
Hey, I love comments… Always look forward to them… Its always great to hear from people who read ur blog!!
So, ur sem’s over?? Mine got over yesterday… wat fun!!!
@Pranali
no…my sems just picking up :P
gonna miss PICT life then??
I jumped to this place from Pranali’s. Actually, wanted to see what was it that got her hooked to your blog. And man, this stuff is good.
It is the same thing that troubled me too when this Right was announced. It isn’t going to be easy. Talking about a school where kids are allowed cellphones from 5th graade? Sounds familiar..My school’s the same. And I know how most of the kids in my school believe that they come from heaven. There are going to be a lot of clashes, conflcting interests in the classrooms. And yes, the underprivileged kids are going to feel terribly out of place, but that will just be the start. It always is so…whether it was giving the Afro-americans equal rights or something else……there will always be problem at the beginning…but all these instituional reforms did, in a way, bear good results right? These days people don’t even care about the color of the person sitting next to you. It will be the same for those kids too. Ofcourse there will be exceptions, ofcourse the ones who’ll be starting today will be the ones who’ll be facing the ire of the rich kids and institutions…but it is all about how you emerge from it. Unscathed, and dignified. And trust me, it will take time, but this Right is going to change the face of India.
Write more, you’re really good.
Take care :)
@Pranali
Hmm…yeah, I guess I will…will miss the friends more than anything in the college, actually. :)
@Remya
Hey, thanks for dropping by.
That’s a great example you pointed out- the one about African Americans getting equal rights to education around ’60s and ’70s…I think we can have many parallels between that and the situation here right now.
Though I really hope we get to that point. The real challenge will be to get the kids into the good schools. The rest of it will probably iron itself out.
Honestly- best of luck to us !!
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i think indian government did a very nice job. i want to see India as a developed country thats why here i will say the gov. must do such a task so that India can be look as a single country.segregating the underprivilege and rich one
we are dividing our india so we must stop it .you know a very little mistake in the base can be a cause of destroying the whole building. Also,i don’t know more about our parliament and the activities inside it but just reading the “right to education-a different perspective” i came to know about this bill and it provide me a great pleasure. however a rich student must help a needy/poor student , a poor talented student so that he/she can show his/her talent and by that talent can take India at a forward step. you also know that the most of our dignatries had the very poor family background.
So be an “Indian”
wow. what a perspective. i mean a different view all together. the way you have written it. cant explain that in word, its awesome. i mean its a point the government or for that matter the people who are boasting about this RTE act and its achievement should understand. My view are this RTE act is just for
Manmohan singh to stand up with other nations and say that even my country has an Right to education act which provides free and compulsory education. thats it and moreover its all a political gimmick and nothing else. Free elementary education wont serve the purpose. Who will take the “responsibility of their future”
you probably dont know me, but i am friend of Pratik Munot and found the link to your blog going through his blog……..
i agree that there will be problems initialy with the kids mixing with each other and the see saw of emotions which happens. But think about what happens in 4-5 years of studying with each other….children (as of what i remember i was) have a great tendency to forgive and forget and make friends….and not care how rich or poor one is…..the only point to be given some consideration is that parents on either side of this economic divide do not re-inforce the stereotype and let their children be what they want to be and befriend who they want to…..isnt that the way it happened to us?……bottomline : if the uniforms and the books are the same and teachers mete out equal treatment, then it does not matter why the kid sitting next to another has a shiny new Ipod.
@hitesh
Actually, free elementary education will make a huge difference. Its true, that the future might not seem so bright, even if you implement such measures. But the question is, do we stop trying?
Like a man who gets cancer- how much chance does he have of surviving? Still, do we stop treating him altogether?
@Manan
Yeah well, I know you. Sometime back you told me my project was crap ;)
Its true what you say(about the RTE, of course :D). The complex that a not-so-rich kid might have isn’t a reason enough for not implementing the act. The point is, there needs to be a lot of sensitization done- of the kids, their parents, and the teachers. Unfortunately, this seems to have had escaped the government’s notice. A law, doesn’t just need to be legislated- the system needs to be adjusted so that the law gels with the mainstream.
I can see that you put a lot of hard work on your blog, I’m sure I’d visit here more often.Great job, keep posting interesting articles here. All The Best
thanks
Thanks !