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HomeIndiaGovernancePunish parents for not sending kids to school: govt panel

Punish parents for not sending kids to school: govt panel

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A government panel has recommended the need to re-evaluate the Right to Education to ensure parents face action for not sending their children to school.

New Delhi: The 65th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) saw some very unusual, if not radical, recommendations being made to push education in the country.

One government panel recommended the need to re-examine the Right To Education Act, 2009 to provide for penal action against parents who do not send their children to school.

Another suggested free education for girls up to the post-graduate level with exclusive universities and a Navodaya Vidyalaya-like residential school for girls in every district.

Both government panels shared their draft recommendations at the CABE meeting held in the capital Monday and are under examination. CABE is the apex body that advises the Centre and state governments on education.

Monday’s meeting was chaired by Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar. In attendance were union ministers Maneka Gandhi, Thaawarchand Gehlot, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Satya Pal Singh and education ministers from 20 states.

PUNISH THE PARENT

A CABE subcommittee headed by minister of state for HRD, Satya Pal Singh, has in its draft recommendations said that the provisions of the RTE act need to be “relooked” at as there are no “penal provisions’ for parents who do not send their children to school.

The panel was set up to examine the feasibility of extending the Right To Education act to pre-primary children as well as at the secondary level.

The 2009 law provides for free and compulsory education for all children aged 6 to 14 years. The law, however, places the government at the centre of the mission rather than making the parents accountable.

The subcommittee has advocated that “in principle” there is need to ensure universalisation of pre-primary education and 100 per cent transition from elementary to secondary schooling.

Keeping the financial implications in mind, it has suggested “a proper analysis of budget allocations” between the states and the Centre to enable extension of the act’s provisions to more children.

On secondary education, the subcommittee has recommended that children dropping out of formal education at secondary level “may be integrated into skill training/open schooling”.

It has also advocated addressing access issues for secondary school students with better transport facilities. A “single integrated programme from classes 1 to 10” has been advised for better convergence between different levels of school education and for universal access to education until the secondary level.

ALL FOR THE GIRLS

The other key subcommittee on girls’ education, headed by Telangana deputy CM and education minister Kadiyam Srihari, has in its draft recommendations called for free education for girls from schools through university, with women universities in each state, residential degree colleges and polytechnics at district headquarters, and an English medium, CBSE affiliated residential school like the Navodaya Vidyalaya in each district for girls.

It has also supported extending the midday meal programme to classes 9-12 besides creating a residential education system for girls. Health and hygiene kits and “emotional and psychological” counselling for girls in residential schools has also been recommended.

THE OTHERS

The subcommittee on ‘Out of School’ children has asked for residential facilities for children from vulnerable categories, incentivisation for their attendance, Aadhaar for all children, provision of vocational education and adjusting the school calendar to local climatic and cultural needs.

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