The RTE: A big step for India, a giant leap for Indian children!
01, 9.1.2012
Two years ago, the Indian Legislature of India brought in a new law that would herald change in the lives of many children and adults. The Right to Education became law and some underprivileged and underserved children became the beneficiaries of an education that might mean liberation from grim poverty through education; good, not so good or not good at all. But education was to become the transformer in their lives, when they could receive free education between the ages of 6 and 14. Children, who could not dream of anything, could now join their more fortunate counterparts in other parts of society and enter and study in proper schools. The dream lay in their path!
The implementation of this law has been tardy, at best. It was not met with spontaneous or genuine acclaim. Schools, particularly unaided ones, object to the speed with which they were required to provide free education and all requirements to avail of it, expressing their indignation at the terms of the bill and the manner of implementation. Unaided privately managed schools have been vocal about how "unfair" the bill is to private edupreneurs who start and run schools with a vision and purpose, but cannot risk huge losses in supporting an increasing percentage of their student population, which is unable to pay for anything. These people and institutions feels that it would make better business sense to shut down their schools and move into some other industry.
Flip to the other side and the picture of a fully literate, numerate and educated India, in this very millennium, comes into view. This seems a very distant dream indeed! But realities cannot be created without dreams. Social justice has been a long time coming to the Indian populace
There are anomalies and even absurdities in the Act. There is lack of clarity, ambiguity, and justified doubt in the promises of subsidies or payments from the government/ governments. But everyone, barring none, should join in this major effort of the powers that be, to bring to every child in primary classes and every youth in middle school that golden world of opportunity that comes only to the educated and the literate. Can there be any doubt about the need for education to empower, to equalize opportunity and to steer democracy in the right direction?
Our social orientation at Indus has always envisaged reaching out, servant leadership and 'acting locally. We will welcome the fortunate few, these 25% who will have a share of what is rightfully theirs. Problems are huge but none which cannot be overcome. It can be said we preempted this need for action in the spirit of social justice and equity. Our Indus International Community school has doubled its capacity and enrolment this year. We will welcome the mandated "25%" with open arms and hearts with sensitivity. Payback time is upon us! Let us embrace the challenges with hope and positivism.
(This is the essence of the message brought to newly elected Leaders of The Indus Student Council at Bangalore, by Lt. Gen. Arjun Ray (Retd.), CEO of the Indus Trust on the occasion of The Ceremony of Investiture on January 26th, 2012)
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Date: 11/21/2024