Goa gears up to implement free education
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, APRIL 15
The Directorate of Education is gearing up to meet the requirements of the Right to Education Act, 2009, and is hopeful most of the provisions of the law will be taken care of in the next three years which is the time limit set by the Centre for its implementation.
The Government of India has enacted the RTE Act with an objective to provide free and compulsory education to all children aged between 6 and 14 years.
Education officials maintained that meeting all the provisions of the law is a challenge. They said copies of the Act have reached most of the schools which will have to on a priority basis go through it and learn what’s required of them.
They mentioned that the school managements, school management committees and local bodies (panchayats) have to gear up and support the Directorate of Education to implement the Act. The implementation can’t be overnight so efforts by all stakeholders in the education sector will be mandatory, they added.
SCOUTING: Deputy Director of Education Anil Powar said it will be the duty of the respective schools to scout for households falling within three kilometre range and find out if any child is not enrolled for learning. “Of course, they will have to take the help of the panchayats that have been listed for help as designated by the Act. Gradually copies of the law will be dispatched to these bodies,” he added.
PENAL ACTION: The RTE aims to plug the drop out rate in schools across the country and make it mandatory for parents to see that their wards get the necessary elementary education. If parents fail to send their wards to school the Act contains a provision for their penalisation.
Powar says at the elementary level Goa has no problem of drop outs, but it starts from the eighth standard onwards. Officials at the Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which looks after elementary education (Std I to VIII), say the drop out rate at the eighth standard level is there but it was minimal.
The deputy director said as far as Goan children were concerned most of them were
