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W ith the apex court upholding the Right to Education Act earlier this month, there have been many questions doing rounds of the minds of the countrys citizens. What does this mean for the citys private schools which have
a very strict admission policy? If the financial burden is not to be borne by the students ( according to HRD minister Kapil Sibal), and states are still waiting for funds to implement the act, who is finally going to bear the costs? And most importantly, what happens is a child from an underprivileged background demands admission to one of the citys elite schools on the basis of this act? ” There is no doubt that dramatic changes are in order, in terms of the composition of classrooms as well the acceptance of students,” says Jitixa Shah, who teaches science and math at Villa Theresa School. According to her, no school can go against the constitutional validity of the Act as established by the Supreme Court.
” But what the court does not envision is that the nature of the classes will change.
Students will have to be inducted within the main classroom and that will require a great effort on the part of every party – the school, the students, as well as the parents.
This is not an easy task, and cannot be accomplished in a short period of time, considering the fact that each academic year students are preparing on towards a singular goal – the final exam. We are already quite stressed as a system to complete everything in time, considering there are roughly about 180 school days in a year,” she adds.
Many parents are bringing up the question of 25 per cent is not justified. ” They are not serving any purpose with this kind of reservations. The reservation percentage is not high enough to cater to all the countrys underprivileged, and yet it is just too large to take away that many seats from students whose families can afford to get them an education. Neither partys purpose is being served,” says Chandrika Panchal, mother of two who study at St Xaviers High School.
Many optimistic educationists feel that once the awkward phase of adjustment is over the integration will make India one step closer to inclusive education and will make the system more meaningful, understandably, parents are not that positive.
These parents work really hard to provide for their children, and are not going to be up for bearing an additional cost of this move, if the school happens to pass on an indirect cost on them. ” I agree social integration is necessary in a society like ours, but measures have to be implemented at every stage. What is these children cannot cope with the class work, or like we have observed at many instances, out after a certain number of years? That would be a colossal waste not only for those providing the funds, but also for those who lost out on admission due to this reservation,” says solicitor Purvi Asher, who is currently on the mode of applying to preschools for a two- year- old son.
While Sibal may be quite hasty is expecting that the RTE Act can become a to the world, there are questions that arise.
According to Sibal, this act could be an opportunity to break the gender, class and community barriers that plague the country, but it is easier said than done. What happens if a student demands to be admitted to one of the citys elite foreign board or alt39 internationalalt39 schools under this act? ” There is slim chance that international schools will take this lying down,” says a source from the Dhirubhai Ambani International School on condition of anonymity. ” There is no way the school can provide for such reservations, and it will be a difficult task to accomplish. I am sure there are loopholes being looked for as we speak, since schools desperately need some to get out of this.” Whatever the case, under this ruling, every school has to make the provision for such reservations from the coming academic year. One can only hope that the move sees the befitting end it should and does not remain another half- hear
