“Two pens for 20 rupees,” she said, holding out the
pens and looking at me with big, bright eyes that had a hint of desperation in
them. She wasn’t alone. There were other children like her, clasping handfuls of
pens and asking passers-by to buy them. This is not an isolated incident. There are many children like these kids on the streets of New Delhi, where I
have lived for the past year. Not all of them sell pens. Some of them sell
roses or beads or whatever their parents can get hold of for them to sell. Some
of them just beg for money. It is very disturbing to see these kids roaming the
streets when they should be in a classroom, learning along with other children
of their age. Is anyone doing anything to improve the lot of these kids whose
parents are too poor to provide a basic education, let alone quality education,
for their children?
One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the
United Nations is “to ensure that every boy and girl has access to inclusive,
equitable and quality education by 2030.” And UNICEF claims that, “across the globe, UNICEF is
committed to nothing less than full and complete access to free, quality
education for every girl and boy.” How do these words on paper play out in the
real world?
Birger Frediksen, Education Expert and Senior Adviser
at the World Bank, is of the opinion that “the single most important factor
excluding children from school is the cost of school fees.” This is definitely
true of Indian children who are denied access to education. According to the National
Survey on Estimation of Out-Of-School children (2014), “poverty/economic reason
is cited by majority of households having out-of-school children.” Frediksen
also believes that “the single most important policy measure to address this is
to abolish school fees.”
One of the initiatives that UNICEF has come up with is
the School Fees Abolition Initiative to enable countries to address the issue
of “poverty preventing children from accessing basic education.” This
initiative was launched in 2005 by UNICEF and the World Bank. Given that India
has the greatest percentage of school-age out-of-school children in South Asia
with 49% (UIS, 2015) one cannot help but wonder what is being done on the
ground to implement this initiative by international and national organizations.
When the Right to Education policy was introduced in
2009, India already had a policy to universalize elementary education: National policy on Education, 1986. Article 5.12 of this policy states: “It
shall be ensured that free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality is
provided to all children up to 14 years of age before we enter the twenty-first
century.”
According to the Department of School Education and
Literacy, The Right to Education Act was put forward to provide free and
compulsory education to all children in the age-group of 6-14 years as a fundamental
right. The right of children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009,
came into effect on April 1, 2010. This RTE “provides for the right of children
to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighborhood
school.” (MHRD, 2016) This act also gives the
norms and standards regarding pupil-teacher ratios, building and
infrastructure, school working days, and appointment of trained teachers.
According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report (2015),
India’s Right to Education Act (2009), has helped to push school enrollment higher.
India also has introduced a school feeding program, in which meals are provided
to children in school. “Mid-day meals and school feeding programs in rural
India have strongly increased girls’ enrollment.”
It is evident that specific steps have been put in
place by the government to ensure that every child had access to free
education. However, given the huge number of children who still roam the
streets of cities and villages in India, more needs to be done. Rashbrooks (2014)
comments: “A lack of educational opportunities creates a circle in which those
unable to get a decent education are denied opportunities for social betterment,
the socially disadvantaged then struggle to access education and so on.” He
believes that "breaking this vicious circle not only improves the lives of
individuals, but also helps maintain the social fabric."
Unless the world tackles inequity today, in 2030, 60
million children of primary school age will be out of school. (UNICEF, 2016). A
warning that should be taken seriously by educators and policy makers around
the world.
I would be interested in knowing more about how the UN, and UNICEF
in particular, is working with the Indian Government to implement their initiatives
in India, and the channels through which they operate. Perhaps, that should be
the focus of my next blog.
References
Benart, Aaron. Education for All 2000- 2015:
Achievements and Challenges. (April 9, 2015). EFA Global Monitoring Report. Retrieved
from
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/PPT_GMR_2015.pdf
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/PPT_GMR_2015.pdf
Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia: The Global Out
of School Initiative. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/education/files/EducateAllGirlsandBoys-UNICEF_ROSA.pdf.
National Sample Survey of Estimation of Out-Of-School Children in the Age 6-13 in India. (September, 2014). Draft Report. Retrieved from http://www.educationforallinindia.com/out_of_shool_survey_2014_india_mhrd_tsg_july_2015.pdf
Rashbrook, Max. (November 12, 2014). Excellence
Through Equity. [blog post]. Retrieved from
School Fees: A Major Barrier to Education Access.(n.d.)
Retrieved from
The State of the World's Children. (2016) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/sowc2016/
The State of the World's Children. (2016) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/sowc2016/
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