90% children still depend on Govt schools
Ninety per cent of children in State study in Government schools. Since these schools have not been able to fulfil the aspirations of the parents, most of them are increasingly depending on private schools which are mushrooming day-by-day in rural pockets of the State. This will have negative consequences in our society and economy in future,” lamented speakers at a consultation programme on the Right to Education (RTE) held here on Sunday.
The Sikshasandhan, a resource centre for education, in collaboration with Odisha RTE Forum organised the programme wherein many learned people, NGO representatives and newly elected people’s representatives discussed the ways for proper implementation of the RTE Act in the State.
MlAs, Dr Prafulla Majhi (Talsara), Pradeep Purohit (Padmapur), laxman Munda (Bonai), Basanta Kumar Panda (Nuapada), Anubhav Patnaik (Khandapada) and Priyadarshi Mishra (Bhubaneswar-North) participated in the talk.
The Act which came into force in April 2010 guarantees quality elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. Proper implementation of the act bears importance as a very large number of children remain out of the school and schools lack minimum infrastructure and adequate teachers.
Even though, the School and Mass Education Department has taken certain steps in terms of recruitment of teachers, improvement of school infrastructure, issuance of various notifications and formation of school management committees, still the ground situation in rural and tribal pockets is very grim.