Right to Education Act comes into force

CHENNAI: Paving way for the implementation of the Right to Education Act of 2009, the Tamil Nadu government finally notified the much-awaited Tamil Nadu Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2011, on November 12. This will bring into force the landmark legislation- passed in August 2009 — that entitles every child to free and compulsory education till he/she completes the age of 14.According to the rules drafted by the state, those children whose parents/ guardians earn an annual income of less than Rs 2 lakh would qualify as ones belonging to weaker sections of society. Orphans, children affected with Human Immuno Deficiency Virus, transgenders, and children of a scavenger wo-uld be treated as children of a disadvantaged group, for the purposes of the Act. This would require that at least 25 per cent of the strength of all schools in the state comprise of these two categories of children in elementary education.Banking largely on the model RTE rules drafted by the Union HRD ministry, the state rules define a neighbourhood school as one within one km distance for students of Class I-V, while for Class VI-VIII students, such a school should be established within a distance of 3 km in the neighbourhood. Under the rules, every school, excluding unaided schools, should form a nine-member school management committee. Seventy five percent of the strength of this committee should have parents and guardians of children, while the rest should include an elected local authority, teacher and a local educationist.As against the model rule, which requires a monthly meeting, the rules stipulate that the committee, in which women should comprise 50 percent, should meet at least once in two months. The committee has also been vested with the responsibility of submitting annual account of receipts and expenditure of the school to the local authority within three months from the end of a financial year.The notification comes close on the heels of the Union Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal’s comments in October asking states to notify the rules in order to implement the act, as non implementation would be a ‘historic failure’.