Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009

Revamp of Primary Education 

Revamp of Primary Education : Education reforms are a continuous process and the Government seeks to carry them forward through expansion, inclusion and rapid improvement in quality through institutional and policy reforms and by enhancing public spending.

In the realm of elementary education, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 which has become operative with effect from 1st April, 2010 lays special focus on improving the quality of education. Further, the Government has issued an Advisory to State Governments on the implementation of section 29 of the RTE Act for initiating curriculum reform, including,

(i) formulating age-appropriate curricula and syllabi in keeping with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) -2005,

(ii) maintaining subject balance,

(iii) initiating textbook content and production reform,

(iv) ensuring continuous and comprehensive assessment for learning.

The Central Board of Secondary Education has introduced the scheme of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in its schools in a phased manner for the improvement of quality in the schools affiliated to it. The Board has also made the Class X Board Examination optional for the students studying in Senior Secondary Schools and who do not wish to move out of the CBSE system after Class X.

Source : PIB

Student-Teacher Ratio

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has become operative with effect from 1st April, 2010, and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) norms have been revised to conform to the Student-Teacher Ratio (STR) prescribed in the Schedule to the RTE Act. The revised norms are as under:

For classes I to V:

(i) Two teachers for up to sixty admitted children

(ii) Three teachers for 61-90 children

(iii) Four teachers for 91-120 children

(iv) Five teachers for 121-200 children

(v) One Head Teacher, other than the five teachers, if the number of admitted children exceeds 150; and the STR (excluding Head Teacher) shall not exceed forty if the number of admitted children is above 200.

For Classes VI to VIII:

(i) At least one teacher per class so that there will be at least one teacher each for (a) Science and Mathematics; (b) Social Studies; and (c) Languages.

(ii) At least one teacher for every 35 children;

(iii) Where admission of children is above 100, there whill be (a) a full time head-teacher and (b) part time instructors for Art Education, Health & Physical Education and Work Education.

 To improve the STR, 19.82 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned up to 2012-13, against which 12.48 lakh teachers have been recruited till 30.09.2012 by the States/UTs. The States/UTs have been advised to fill up these teacher posts along with teacher vacancies under the State sector. They have also been advised to rationalize the deployment of teachers in order to make the schools RTE complaint.

 This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Shashi Tharoor in Lok Sabha