The Center recently issued a gazette notification that if a child fails to clear a final examination in Classes 5 or 8, they can be held back. This strikes down one of the key provisions of the Right to Education Act 2009 that held no child shall be detained until Class 8. The amendment has stirred a controversy with some saying it goes against the spirit of the Act that seeks to ensure education for all.

The scrapping of the no detention policy is among the three major amendments to the Act. While many of the provisions stand intact, at least on paper, there are still caveats in its implementation.

What is not working?
A key provision of the RTE is the concept of neighbourhood schools. In the 15 years the Act has been in existence, States have implemented the policy with mixed results.
B. Chandrasekaran, a former consultant to the Union Planning Commission, says that the neighbourhood schools model has mostly failed. Whatever is achieved is only in some pockets where the Chief Education Officer works meticulously. “Where government officials have shown interest, several schools have shown improvement”, he said.
Mr. Chandrasekaran says there is a need to simplify and institutionalise the entire process. The school education department can create an online portal for the same. Parents are keen to enroll under this act, but almost 80 percent of the time they struggle to do so. He says even so many years down the line, a lot of parents are not aware of the scheme. “When they do hear about it, they don’t receive any help in the application process. For a small error in application, it gets rejected, he says.
Mr. Chandrasekaran has worked with government schools in Erode, Tamil Nadu, to create awareness about RTE among the economically weaker sections. Citing one problem he

HTE: Nying notifications, oments and intact provisions The Minds
witnessed, he says, if a parent’s residential address is different from their current addr their child can’t get admission at the current address.
To resolve this issue, Mr. Chandrasekaran says, it would help if the 25% reservation in schools is changed to a voucher-based system. Under this, a voucher of the same amount can be given to parents, so they can have flexibility to enroll their child wherever they wish.
Pointing out another drawback of the lottery system, he says it doesn’t guarantee admission to all the students. Only some percentage of students get selected due to budget constraints, he says, the percentage can be improved with more budgetary allocation as many students are still out of the schooling.
Mr. Chandrasekaran says that the problem specifically with the Tamil Nadu government is that they don’t reimburse the schools on a timely basis. “So there are a lot of private schools not inclined to give admissions under RTE. In such cases schools start pressuring students and then parents to pay the amount instead. It is stigmatising”, he says.
Maalathi K R, Founder and CEO at Auuro Educational Services, says the implementation of the ACT has succeeded to some extent especially in schools that follow state curriculum across Tamil Nadu. She says sometimes since there are many options availabl in private schools. But they demand admission only to a particular school th considered to be higher in standard or fees, irrespective of whether seats are not. She says at times local politicians like the ward councillors or panchayat/municipality presidents use this opportunity to put pressure on the schools to give seats