Study suggests that only 8% schools comply with RTE Act

Only 8 per cent schools across the country comply with the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, according to a study by a civil society group on implementation of the act.

RTE forum, the civil society coalition working on Right To Education, on Tuesday organised the 8th National Stocktaking Convention with over 10,000 NGO members from across 20 states.

According to the study, India's spending on education is less than 3% of GDP, compared to its obligation of spending 6%; and its per capita spending on education is approximately four times less than the spending incurred by middle income countries.

And while vacancies for the posts of teachers remains to be a serious issue, the study suggest that almost 20% of teachers in India are untrained.

The event, which brought together over 500 people from 15 states to discuss the status of education in the country, saw a national campaign being launched by the forum to make education a critical issue in the upcoming elections.

"There is a need of education for development and that while India has a range of progressive legislations, governments are lethargic in their implementation.

"While much effort has gone to frame the right to education, slow implementation risks depriving a generation of children of the basic human right to education. I regret that quality of education in India is poor and improvement in learning outcomes is unlikely without filling existing vacant teacher posts," said Justice Madan B Lokur.

Kishore Singh, former UN special rapporteur on the Right to Education, emphasised the need for India to adhere to its international human rights obligations of delivering universal quality public education and stop profit making from education.

Former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey also expressed his disappointment on the poor implementation of the act.