With a host of grey areas in the State’s policy on ensuring Right to Education (RTE) for disadvantaged sections of society like SCs, STs and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under Section 12 (1) (c) of RTE Act, Odisha aggregated as many as 13 ‘Red’ points in 2013-14 annual progress report released recently.
The State of the Nation on Section 12 (1) (c) conducted by IIM – A (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad) along with 3-other research institutes reveals a steep fall in admission rate or seat fill rate by EWS/SC/ST children in private unaided schools in Odisha. It also discloses a significant fall in the school participation rate in the State in 2013-14. The report blamed the sharp decline on over a dozen of ambiguities in State’s policy on the RTE provision. The result: Odisha languishes at number 2 from bottom nationally with a seat fill rate of mere 1.85 per cent in 2013-14.
The data details the enormity. Since this provision is applicable to the entry-level admissions in elementary education, which means at class-I stage, in unaided private schools, the State has seen only 393 admissions against the availability of a whopping 21, 255 seats. It needs mentioning that under the provision of RTE Act ‘at least’ 25 per cent seats in private unaided schools should be earmarked for EWS/ST/SC children living in the neighbourhood area of 1km. Significantly, when seats available saw a rise by over 1,600 in 13-14, admissions at entry level drop by a high of around 1,400 in the State. Schools’ participation rate looks more pathetic as not even 1 per cent schools in Odisha has implemented the RTE provision against around 6 per cent participation rate in 2012-13. IIM-A reasoned this slip-up to slack in monitoring mechanism in the State. It asked the State to follow the Rajasthan and Maharashtra model to record a perceivable improvement in implementing the RTE provision.
The State failed because it goofs up where it mattered most, pointed out the report. Poor information dissemination and hazy selection process did most the damage. Neither it has delineated about the type of info to be shared nor designated any authority to man. Goof-ups detected even in provisioning of proper admission form format description. The State has neither a centralised nor decentralised system to fix date of lottery to decide on the admissions. Even it has not announced any timeline or dates for admission cycle, the report observed.
Schools show little enthusiasm in implementing the provision as the State has not formulated any method to calculate the reimbursement, for which IIM – A has awarded ‘Red’ rating to State. Only 19 out of over 2,080 private schools have implemented the RTE section, finds the report. Nothing is stated in notification about the authority responsible for financing additional items like text books, report pointed out.
Above all, the School and Mass Education Department (SME) failed to list out the documents a parent needs to submit to schools in order to avail the RTE provision and even not specified the age criteria for entry-level admissions.