Right to Education Act – Some Quality Concerns

The Right to Education Act (RTE) enacted by India has come in effect from 1st April 2013. It states that every child of the age six to fourteen years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education. It not only increases enrolment and decrease the cost of education to one and all through inbuilt mechanist. At the same time, its long term goals of RTE need to be met with by due emphasis on quality and not quantity. The focus on the RTE has to shift to quality driven mechanisms that boost the learning outcomes in schools across the country. Even though infrastructure, cost, access and other parameters are important for the success of RTE, quality Teacher Education is the first and foremost condition to ensure the quality of education. Assessment practices, Comprehensive and Continuous Assessment (CCE), new teaching learning methodologies are some other areas of concern. This paper discusses some issues pertaining to the quality concerns of school education, in the light of RTE. Key words : Right to Education (RTE), Quality Concerns, Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), Learning Analytics, Teacher Education