Right to education and the RTE Act

Let me state one thing at the outset. I believe that every child has the right to education and health. I also believe that education (& health) is different from other products and services in that it cannot be governed by market dynamics. While quality can dictate price in other categories, leading to rich people getting access to high quality products and services - this is simply not tenable for education and health because these are not consumption items; they are human capital building items. So if poor people get poor education and poor health, they'll remain poor. And if rich people get good education and good health, they'll become richer and the gap will continue to widen. Therefore Universal access to good quality education is a noble and I would argue, necessary goal for our nation.

Now, what determines good quality education? And what comes in the way of universal access to it? Numerous surveys have indicated that good teachers in safe, enabling environments lead to good education. And access to it is a function of abundant supply of the above.

Why is it that in India, all children do not have access to good quality education?

First, there are not enough schools. As I mentioned in my previous post (about 2 years back), India needs about 25 crore school seats and my estimate shows that at present there are about 19 crore seats. Who will bridge this gap?

Second, out of the schools available, only a handful are of good quality. This has been brought out by numerous surveys and reports (ASER, PISA scores etc). Government schools top the charts in terms of rank bad quality. Some private schools are not a whole lot better, relying on rote learning and batch testing. Learning for understanding and application of knowledge takes place in only isolated islands of excellence. Teacher quality and motivation is the main culprit here. Our BEd program is outdated, teacher accountability in government schools is absent and teacher capability is pathetic.

In the face of this, how do we service every child's right to (quality) education?

First, of course is to increase the supply of good quality schools. But what does the RTE act do? Ask private schools to reserve 25% of seats for the poor and disadvantaged sections of society. How will this increase overall supply? It is not like private schools are sitting with idle capacity which they can offer to children of poor and disadvantaged sections. So the 25% children of 'strong and advantaged' section who would otherwise have gotten admission in private schools will now have to either go to government schools (thereby depriving them of their right to quality education!) or hope for new private schools to come up. And why would new private schools come up if 25% reservation makes it unviable for them?

Aren't we killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Aren't we stifling the urge to innovate in private schools because the returns would not be there anymore? Aren't we reducing the attractiveness for a private player to open a school? Instead, should the government not be opening more schools? Better still, instead of opening schools that are run by teachers who earn fat salaries but seldom come to class, isn't it better to pay vouchers to poor parents to help them pay for quality education? This way, the poor parent becomes equal to his rich counterpart in ability to pay. Government money would go towards funding education rather than funding non performing teachers. Private player can focus on running good quality school because both rich and poor parent can now pay for the education he provides. And with Nandan Nilekani's Aadhar project, this should be possible very soon!

Second, we need to overhaul our teacher education, curriculum and assessment system. What does the RTE act do in this regard? Nothing. Zero. Zilch!

The Act has so many flaws and loopholes that practitioners of the art have already found multiple ways of avoiding implementation. You will see an increase in private minority institutes and residential schools. You'll have another group of rent seekers for NOC to schools under RTE. You'll have fake registrations of poor students in private schools without an actual child studying. The list goes on. I have met a number of school trustees who have a ready armory to defeat the contentious and misguided 25% reservation guideline. Rather than investing time, effort and resources in policing an unfair rule, the government would be well advised to focus on constructive ways of guaranteeing the right to education of every child by building more schools and making teachers more accountable.

If we are truly serious about ensuring every child has access to quality education, then RTE is high on intent but low on action. The tough actions needed in allocating the right budget to education, implementing a voucher system, overhauling teacher education and rationalizing the ponderous volume of syllabus have neither been taken nor been indicated as future actions. All that has been done is an Act. The Right to (Quality) Education is still a pipe dream.