RTE doesn’t address quality issues: Gurcharan Das
By IANSTuesday, December 7, 2010
NEW DELHI - Even as the government prepares to implement the right to education (RTE) act, businessman-turned-author Gurcharan Das said Tuesday the statute does not properly address the issue of quality.
Reach is not the main issue any more, the stress should be on quality, Das told IANS.
Participating in a seminar on ‘Schools of Tomorrow’ here, Das said: The RTE doesn’t address the issue of absenteeism. If a teacher doesn’t come, how can he teach?
The seminar, which had messages from eminent educationists, academicians and thinkers, including former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Azad, stressed on introducing new methods in education.
India is on the threshold of emerging as a knowledge superpower. A collaborative mindset between education, business and government leaders is needed to sustain this change, said Ashish Rajpal, CEO of iDiscoveri, an education company working on developing new methods of education.
The group runs a programe, XSEED, which provides an innovative teaching module to over 400 schools across the country.
The RTE act promises free and compulsory education up to Class 8.
It provides for education to students in the 6-14 age group and will especially focus on bringing back 8.1 million children of this age group back to the classrooms.
