The Right to Education (RTE) Act will be enforced in the Andhra Pradesh from the next academic year 2010-11. So, the state government has appealed all stakeholders, teachers’ unions, parents, students and the general public to convey their suggestions about the implementation of the Act by April 20 so that it can frame model rules for implementing RTE from June.
The Act ensures free and compulsory education for children for the age group from six to 14 years. The government has also selected a three-member committee governed by the commissioner and director of school education.
The government should discuss several issues before enforcing the RTE Act. The major issues are funding pattern, recruitment of teachers and satisfying private schools to retain 25 per cent of their seats for poor students.
The state expects that it needs Rs 20,000 crore for the subsequent three years to enforce the Act. But, it has not allotted and it is totally dependent on funds given by the Centre under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme to enforce the RTE.
Another main problem faced by the state is the recruitment of teachers. The government issued the DSC notification to recruit 52,000 teachers, but it has appointed only 15,000 so far because of legal issues. According to the Act, the student to teacher ratio must be 30:1, but according to present statistics, it is 60:1.