TG’s RTE promise unfulfilled amid admission rush

Hyderabad:As December arrives, the admission season begins. While parents rush to secure spots in top schools, the promise of implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE Act), which assures free and compulsory schooling for all children aged 6 to 14, is yet to be implemented for this academic year despite promises made.

Telangana has made strides in school enrolment, with 98.8 per cent of children aged 6 to 14 enrolled. However, the RTE Act's provision of reserving 25 percent of seats in private schools for economically weaker sections has faced delays and setbacks.

In a paper published in July 2024 in the Journal of MCR HRD Institute by Vekatanarayana Motkuri, associate professor and coordinator of the research cell on education at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad, points out that while enrolment is high, access to quality education and improved learning outcomes remain elusive.

Although the Act came into force in 2010, Telangana’s adoption has been slow. In 2021, the High Court called out the government for its inaction, and by June 2024, it demanded a blueprint for the implementation of the 25 percent reservation in private schools.

The government assured compliance starting in 2025–26, but as December 2024 approaches, six months beginning of the new academic year, practices such as admission interviews persist, which has left parents uncertain about real change.

Parents note that government schools have issues of infrastructure and resources. That’s why, private schools are what parents mostly look forward to, said Venkat Sainath, joint secretary of Hyderabad School Parents Association. Further, the study also points out that private schools dominate the education space in state education in Telangana, which accounts for 55 per cent of enrolments.

The recently published Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2023-24 by the RBI, only 37.5 per cent of government schools have functional computer facilities, which falls short of the national average of 39.9 per cent.

In rural areas, this percentage drops further. These challenges, combined with teacher shortages and multi-grade classrooms, hinder improvements in learning outcomes.

In contrast, 80 per cent of private schools have computers.

Telangana ranks 14th among Indian states in overall learning outcomes. The state’s foundational literacy and numeracy levels remain weak. The journal paper attributes the learning issues to inadequate teacher training, outdated classroom practices and governance challenges.

“The RTE Act in principle agreed and modalities of implementation are under process at Government for issuance,” informed E.V. Narasimha Reddy, director of school education. However, there is no approximate date for it yet.

Telangana’s literacy rate rose from 60 per cent in 2001 to 67 per cent in 2011, according to the last Census data. However, it still lags behind the national average of 73 per cent. While the state has higher gross enrolment ratios in secondary and higher secondary levels compared to the national average, dropout rates and transitions from rural to urban schools remain problematic. The RTE Act holds the potential to address these inequities, but promises are yet to translate into action.