Union HRD Minister Reviews Implementation of RTE

Union HRD Minister Reviews Implementation of RTE

Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development reviewed the implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 at a meeting with State Education Secretaries here today. Also present in the meeting were Dr. D Purendeswari, MoS for HRD, Smt. Anshu Vaish, Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy and other senior officials. During the meeting among the matters discussed was the need for a grievance redressal mechanism for the RTE. It was pointed out that the RTE Act makes local authorities the grievance redressal agencies and the SCPCRs the appellate bodies at the State level. In this context it is necessary to establish the modalities through which child rights under the RTE Act are protected and violations can be dealt with. 

On the subject of Rationalizing Teacher Deployment, it was stated that a computerized software has been developed to facilitate states to undertake redeployment of teachers. The software uses the DISE database and can be customized to specific needs of the States. It has the potential to: 

• Generate a list of under-served and over-served schools.
• Create a vacancy database. 
• Generate a list of vacancies subjects-wise. 
• Be sensitive to the needs of physically handicapped teachers, women teachers and other categories as prioritized by the State. 
• Correct existing imbalances in teacher deployment. 

Some of the other issues that were addressed during the meeting include a review of the status of notification of State rules under RTE Act, 2009 . A Review of status of constitution of SCPCR/REPA for protection of rights of children under the RTE Act was also done. The subject of Community Mobilisation and awareness creation of RTE was also underlined. Teacher related issues, including, Teacher Vacancies in State sector and SSA, Additional teachers to fulfill RTE Mandate, Teacher Qualifications and Revision of Recruitments Rules, Relaxation of Teacher Qualifications, Teacher Eligibility Test, Training of Untrained Teachers came up for discussion during the review. Also discussed was reimbursement for admission of 25 per cent children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in unaided schools