Even nine years after the enactment of Right to Education Act (RTE), Odisha seems to have failed to implement the Act properly as many lacunae are found in the elementary education sector.
The RTE Act describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 years of age, who have fundamental right to education.
As per the Act, there should be two teachers for 60 students, three teachers for 90 students, four for 120 students, five and a headmaster for 200 students from the Class I to V in the primary school. There should be one teacher in each class from Class VI to VIII. However, the Government has failed the student-teacher ratio in the primary schools by last academic session.
Apart from shortage of teachers, lack of infrastructures, classrooms and toilets in primary schools are other reasons behind decline in students’ enrolment.
Sources in the School and Mass Education (S&ME) Department said there is no playground in more than 40,000 schools and no separate toilets for boys and girls in many schools. Construction work of kitchen for cooking meal Mid-Day Meal (MDM) is still in progress and around 70 per cent primary schools do not have boundary.
However, S and ME Secretary Pradipta Mohaptra has claimed that the RTE Act is being implemented in Odisha properly.
“The students are being provided free textbooks from beginning of eacj academic session. There is one teacher posted for 23 students in Odisha that we never find in other States. As many 14,807 teachers were appointed recently. The students will be given free shoes from 2018-19 academic session for which Rs 103 crore has been allocated in this year’s Budget,” he said.