The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act' 2009 which is popularly known as the Right to Education Act 2009 has failed. Most of the provisions of the Act are not fully met.
The Right to Education Act was passed with great pomp and gusto on the 4th of August 2009, but it was made effective on 1st April 2010. This is an isolated Act which was brought into effect at a delayed date and not from the date it was passed by the Parliament. The Prime Minister made an address to the nation, again a deviation from the set procedure of promulgating an Act passed by the Parliament, and promised to the children of the nation that come 1st April 2015 every child in the age group of 6 to 14 will have all the conditions made in the RTE Act, and most of them Herculian, fulfilled to get quality education. The government made big bang about this Act and patted its back that it had done what the nation could not do since Gopal Krishan Gokhale demanded and presented the Elementary Education Bill 1911. Mr. Kapil Sibal had done in less than 100 days of being HRD Minister what scores of Education Ministers of this country could not do in more than 60 years of independent India.
Sadly the best of lawyers and the best of bureaucrats don't make the best of educational planners. We are witnessing what an 'accomplished' lawyer did to education and we will have to wait another decade to see what a 'seasoned' bureaucrat can do to education. let us give the devil, Indian teachers the due and let them plan education. Perhaps they may show some understanding. When children fail the national and international assessments the teachers are asked "Why did children failIJ" What should the teachers sayIJ