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Delhi yet to take final view on education law

OUR BUREAU

April 21: Officials in Delhi today said the human resource development ministry was yet to take a final view on whether some provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act applied to unaided minority schools. Quoting from a Supreme Court order, HRD minister Kapil Sibal had written to state education ministers on Tuesday that the act would not apply to unaided minority institutions. But while drafting the letter, intended to chart the course for implementing the RTE Act, the ministry did not appear to have taken into consideration all its implications. "The ministry is in the process of studying the judgment as to what provisions of the RTE Act would apply and what provisions would not apply to unaided minority institutions," a senior ministry official said in Delhi today. The letter — written after the apex court had ruled that unaided minority schools need not reserve one-fourth of their seats for the underprivileged — had left no room for ambiguity. "The Supreme Court has held that the RTE Act and, in particular, Section 12(1)(c) and 18(3) infringes the fundamental freedom guaranteed to unaided minority schools under Article 31 (of the Constitution), and consequently the said Act shall not apply to such schools," it said. Never known for ceding academic control easily, officials in Delhi today said the ministry was yet to finalise its views. In Calcutta, school education secretary Bikram Sen denied having received the letter. The RTE Act makes education compulsory for all children aged between six and 14. However, some of its provisions like automatic promotion till Class VIII and a ban on any form of physical and mental "harassment" have raised concerns in many reputable schools. J.C. Kurian, a former member of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, said that going by the April 12 Supreme Court judgment, unaided minority schools were free to decide whether they would implement the other provisions of the RTE or not. In Calcutta, heads of several schools iterated today that the exemption had only offered them the freedom to reconsider some of the provisions of the act that they felt could harm a section of students. "The exemption from the RTE Act does not mean that unaided schools have been given the liberty to practise whatever that is not there in the act at random," said Terence Irelend, the principal of St James' School. "We want to make sure no school takes advantage of the exemption. We need to work out a formula so that we are able to maintain the high academic standards of our institutions in conformity with the provisions of the act though it is not binding on us to follow the act." Welland Gouldsmith principal Gilian Rose Mary Hart referred to the need for new teaching techniques: "Even when the act was not there the number of failures till Class VIII was negligible. But now we want to ensure that all the children in every class are ready to go up to the next class. For this we need to train our teachers extensively. If necessary we would have to adopt new teaching techniques." Hart was among the 40-odd minority school heads who met at Pratt Memorial yesterday. After the meeting, Hart had cited how any effort to discipline students was being "misunderstood" since the act came into effect. The schools feel sensitising teachers to the objectives of the act could go a long way in helping the schools evolve a new governing policy even if the act is not binding on them. "We are against any physical harm to a child or any form of harassment but it is our duty to ensure the child grows up as a disciplined adult. Even those who framed the act will not mind that," a teacher said. The Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools is convinced that the Supreme Court has given unaided schools the liberty to frame their own policies. It has decided that the individual schools will first go into a huddle with their founder bodies and identify the areas of possible change. The association will then meet to discuss "a uniform model of governance". "For example, we need to devise ways to discipline children without hurting them. We also need to develop a system by which we can ensure that each student between Classes I and VIII is made ready to be promoted to the next class," said one principal. Most of the unaided minority schools in Calcutta are affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations. If the law allows them to devise their own policies, the council is unlikely to complain. According to the council's rules, affiliate schools are free to follow their own policies till Class VIII.