jointly conducted by unicef – s.r.c.w-gujarat & gender … · 2020. 8. 7. · 2 10.30 am to 11.00...

RTE Orientation for PRIs

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Jointly conducted by

UNICEF – S.R.C.W-Gujarat & Gender Resource Centre – WCD

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act,

2009

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010


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“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”- Malala Yousafzai – a Pakistani teenager girl who is determined to continue her struggle for every child’s right to education.

As a follow up to the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the child, UNESCO proclaimed 1979 as the international year of the child. The proclamation signed by U.N.’s then secretary general Kurt Waldheim on 1st January 1979, aimed at addressing problems affecting children throughout the world, including malnutrition and lack of access to education. All these efforts resulted into the convention on the Rights of the child in 1989. The Government of India ratified the UNCRC in the year 1992. Thus there has been awareness on basic rights of the child all over the world. Concerted efforts are being made to combat social and health issues like illiteracy, malnutrition, HIV (AIDS) and other problems affecting the children especially in the developing countries including India by UNICEF in co-ordination with the respective state governments.

In the Indian Context, it may be asserted, that the crucial role of universal elementary education for strengthening the social fabric of democracy through provision of equal opportunities to all has been accepted since inception of our Republic. The Directive Principles of State Policy enumerated in our Constitution lays down that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen years. In 1974, the Government of India adopted a National Policy for Children as “Supremely important assets.”

It is worth mentioning here that “Gujarat Compulsory Primary Education Act 1961” has been in force in Gujarat state. With the enactment RTE Act by government of India; there has been more awareness on elementary education in both urban and rural areas of the state.

Background


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There is no denying the fact that as a direct result of measures initiated by the central and state governments there is some progress on the educational front and an improvement in male – female literacy rate is clearly visible during the last six decades after independence as indicated in the following graph.

Note: Literacy rate represents the number of literate persons as a percentage of the total population.

Source: Census of India

However, a need was felt to take more vigorous and radical steps including legal remedies to uphold right of children to elementary education belonging to different social and economic strata’s. Accordingly, the Article 21 (A) has been inserted in the Part III (Fundamental Rights) in the Indian constitution. It enjoins upon the state to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six


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to fourteen years. The original Provision, “The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years” in the constitutional article 45 has been substituted by “Provision for free and compulsory education for children” (Eighty Six Amendment Act 2002)

In the part IV-A (Fundamental Duties) of the constitution, the Article 51 A (K) has been inserted by the Constitution (Eighty Sixth Amendment Act, 2002 Section 4). It inter alia provides that it is fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

The parliament of India enacted “The Right of children to free and compulsory education Act” in the year 2009, as envisaged in the article 21-A of the constitution. The salient provisions of the said piece of legislation are as follow.

• Every child has a right to be provided full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standard,

• Compulsory education casts an obligation on the appropriate Government to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education,

• “Free education” means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education,

• The duties and responsibility of the appropriate Government, local authorities, parents, schools and teachers in providing free and compulsory education and;

• A system for protection of the right of children and a decentralized grievance redressal mechanism


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The elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutes (PRIs) ought to play an important role in implementation of “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009” in letter and spirit in the area under their Jurisdiction.

Understandably, the representatives of PRIs can fulfill their responsibilities and duties only if they are conversant with the provisions “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009” and “The Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010”

With a view to disseminating important provisions of “The Right Of Children To Free And Compulsory Education Act , 2009” and “The Right Of Children To Free And Compulsory Education Rules, 2010” to the representatives of PRIs in the selected districts / Blocks of Gujarat State; an orientation programme has been successfully organized Jointly by UNICEF and Gender Resource Centre under administrative control of women and Child Development Department, Govt. of Gujarat from 16-02-2014 to 24-02-2014.

• Increased self-awareness on RTE act and its implications on the education scenario in Gujarat

• Capacity building of PRI members and sensitize them on gender equity with focus on girl education

• Become more familiar with the strengths and limitations of RTE • To improve the participants’ ability to analyze the RTE and its

provisions from the Gender equity lens. • Know their roles and responsibility as per the RTE Act • Understand the bottlenecks in implementing RTE effectively and

how best they can contribute to it.

Introduction

Objectives


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• Developing perspective of PRI members on education, equity and

RTE • PRIs will develop follow up plan for supporting RTE in their

respective place.

The orientation programme has been conducted in the six districts where UNICEF has under taken initiative known as IKEA, Bal Adhikar Proyogna (BAP) to achieve the objective of sustainable prevention of child labour. BAP aims at prevention of child labour. BAP recognizes the inter linkages between child labour, child health, women’s empowerment and other socio economic issues and tries to incorporate these into the overall design and implementation of the programme.

The criteria for selection of blocks / talukas in these six districts is less than 50% female literacy rate.

District Block

Vadodra Chhota Udepur

Bhavnagar Mahuva

Banaskantha Amirgadh

Patan Varahi

Kutch Rapar

Rajkot Jasdan

Expected Outcomes

The criteria for selection of districts


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The training module for this orientation programme was partially prepared on the basis of input provided by founder and CEO of leaders in change, W1A101, Wellingston Estate, DLF Phase 5, Gurgaon - 122002.

Education Department – Govt. Of Gujarat module for RTE Act was also referred to, for conducting this orientation programme.

The salient contents of the combined module prepared for the present orientation programme are as follow.

� The background of compulsory education in Gujarat � Objectives of RTE Act and its main provisions � Definition of Child � Special provision for children who have not completed elementary

education (STP) � Right to transfer of school � Duty of state Government – Local authority � School’s responsibility for free and compulsory education � Ban on capitation fee and screening procedure � Proof of age for admission � No denial of admission � Prohibition of holding back and expulsion � Prohibition of physical punishment and mental harassment to child � No School to be established without obtaining certificate of

recognition � School Management committee and a role of PRI representatives � School Development Plan � Duties of teachers and redressal of grievances � Pupil – Teacher Ratio � Filling up vacancies of teachers � Prohibition of deployment of teachers for non – educational

purposes � Prohibition of private tuition by teacher � Examination and completion certificate � Redressal of grievances

Training Module


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� Constitution of State advisory Council � Gender biases in Education � General Sex ratio � Child sex ratio � Girl child dropout ratio � Societal problems in girl education � Lack of education and its linkages with gender discriminations and

Domestic violence � Girl education and the resultant beneficial effects on the society

• Participatory methodology • Power Point Presentations on RTE • Short Films on various themes like Gender Issues, significance of

education, a successful mahila sarpanch etc. • Case studies • Feedback from the participants in a structured questionnaire • Role play, Brain storming activities – Games

No. Time

Subject

1 10.00AM to 10.30 AM Registration

2 10.30 AM to 11.00 AM Objective of the workshop & GRC Introduction

3 11.00 AM to 11.30 AM Introduction of Participants

4 11.30 AM to 12.00 Noon Ice- Breaking

5 12.00 Noon to 1.00 PM Gender Discriminations & Education

6 1.00 PM to 2.00 PM The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 & Role of PRIs

7 2.00 PM to 2.30 PM Lunch Break

8 2.30 PM to 3.00 PM Overview of pre-lunch sessions

9 3.00 PM to 4.30 PM Case studies – Exercise

10 4.30 PM to 5.00 PM Valedictory & Vote of Thanks

Training Methodology

Programme Schedule


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Block: Chhota-Udepur

Dist: Vadodra Date – 16 th January 2014

Total No. of Participants: 25

Dr. Dinesh Kapadia, Director Gender Resource Centre dwelt upon

various provisions of RTE Act with focus on composition of school management committee and roles and responsibilities of PRIs in effective implementation of RTE, through Power Point Presentation in the vernacular language taking into consideration comfort level of the participants.

Short films on a success story of a woman sarpanch and importance of girl education were also shown to the participants. Every participant took a keen interest in the P.P.T. / Short Films and some of them asked questions on provisions of RTE and also shared their views and experience on the ground level bottlenecks in containing dropout of girl students.

A sarpanch of a group panchayat enthusiastically shared his pro-active role in ensuring regular attendance by the teachers of a primary school in his village and thereby redressing a grievance of the parents of students.

Ms. Chinamayee Joshi, from AWAG – a reputed N.G.O. provided her valuable service as a resource person and convincingly explained importance of imparting education to both boys and girls through participatory method.

She also touched upon gender biases prevailing in our society and its deleterious effects during her session which generated interest among both male and female participants who expressed their satisfaction during interactions at the end of the session.

Both boys and girls are admitted to first standard by the parents in the rural areas as a result of awareness and in most of the cases, elementary education is completed. However gender discrimination begins after completion of elementary education attributable to expenses


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involved in it. Moreover some parents are afraid of sending their girl child outside the village for higher education because of incidents of elopement and eve teasing.

“Gender discrimination is still prevailing in our village”. A woman sarpanch expressed her concern during interaction.

It is worth mentioning here, that Vanuben kunwarsinh vasava has been able to get herself elected to the post of president of Chhota-Udaipur Taluka Panchayat for second consequent term. She extended her full support in the conduct of this programme. She also remained present throughout orientation programme.

Ramilaben Rathwa – Case study

There is a modicum of awareness on significance of imparting education to girls among the tribles of Chhotaudaipur, as is evident from the case of Romilaben

Rathwa, an incumbent elected member of taluka panchayat.

She is a Class V drop out and the mother of four daughters and one son. Her husband being a low ranked government servant with a transferable job, has to shift alone from one place to the other as part of his job and therefore, it becomes a sole responsibility of Ramilaben to look after her children at Jodhgam in Chhotaudepur taluka. She encouraged all her children to pursue their study without gender bias with the result that her eldest daughter has become a medical doctor, the second one an engineer and two daughters and one son are studying in their respective courses.

She shared her experiences during the interaction session and narrated how difficult it was for her to allow her daughters to continue their higher studies, facing awkward questions from her own community. However she maintained patience and ensured that her daughters were not discouraged from pursuing academic career. She proudly announced that she did not believe in gender discriminations.


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Block: Mahuva District: Bhavnagar

Date: 18 th January 2014 Total No. of Participants: 26

Ms. Chimnayee Joshi from AWAG touched upon gender biases prevalent in our society; having a direct effect on girl child education.

“An elder daughter has the responsibility to look after domestic chores and also to take care of young children in a family. This prevents her from going to a school and it is the main reason for low literacy rate” – she emphatically expressed her opinion, during the session.

She also focused on roles and responsibilities of PRIs and parents/ guardians in the context of RTE Act.

“It is extremely difficult to convince the economically backward people on importance of sending their children to a school; as they consider the children as a source of income or a care taker of a house. Moreover, a girl child is deprived of education attributable to a social tradition of child marriage. There is a need for the entire society to come out of this pathetic condition. We will begin from our family and try to spread this message to the entire village” - A male Sarpanch

Ms. Bijal Bangdiwala I/c State Coordinator/Research Officer; SRCW (NMEW) explained at length the provisions of RTE Act to the participants and also discussed on importance of education with gender lens in the 21st century. The participants asked some questions on provisions of RTE Act also expressed their views on the relevant issues pertaining to education.

“There is a need on the part of elderly people to understand significance of girl education. There is also a need for the society as a whole to realize difficulties faced by women.”


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“There is a lackadaisical attitude towards education in Saurastra region because of a notion that education is not required to carry out farming and other family businesses. However, with the changing time, we have realized that importance of education has increased, and we are ready to make efforts to get all children of our village educated.”

- A Participant


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Block: Amirgadh

Dist: Banaskantha Date – 20 th January 2014


Ms Chinmayee Joshi, the resource person engaged the

participants in an interesting debate on gender stereotypes in our social milieu, which are main causes of a comparatively higher dropout rate among girl students.

It transpired during interaction and feedback session that the PRI member found this programme very useful and some of them promised to make sincere efforts to ensure that primary schools in their villages are run properly with regular presence of teachers and attendance by the eligible boys and girls.

Bijal Bangadiwala – I/C state co-coordinator S.R.C.W. functioning under Gender Resource Centre , disseminated provisions of RTE Act to the participants in a simple and comprehensive language through power point presentation .

She explained in detail the duties of all the stake holders in effective and purposeful implementation of R.T.E. Act. The participants asked questions on special training programme - STP and other aspects of elementary education. The children of migratory labours in this district are not able to continue their education as they cannot attend a school regularly. It is a common practice among the labours to take elder daughter along with infants at work sites to look after the later; where as a boy of a school going age is allowed to attend his school. Thus gender discrimination in providing elementary education among the labours is prevalent in this region.

The PRI representatives frankly shared their views on socio – economic conditions of the local people and also certain social traditions. The women representatives of PRIs in this district prefer not to come out openly and play an active role in proceedings of gram sabhas, which could be attributed to societal inhibitions.


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It is also observed during orientation programme that women members of PRIs are represented by their spouses as a proxy.

The participants opined that this orientation programme was indeed informative, interesting as well as purposeful in the sense that they became conversant with provisions of RTE Act for the first time, since its enactment in the year 2009.


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Block: Varahi

District: Patan Date: 21 th January 2014


Ms. Chinmayee Joshi of “AWAG” initiated a debate on Socio –Economic issues prevailing in this backward region; focusing on gender issues including female foeticide, child marriage and lack of access to education.

She also engaged the participants in a discussion on how to encourage girls to pursue elementary education by ensuring their safety and providing basic needs at the schools. The participants expressed their views on the prevailing social conditions and gender issues.

“We do not try to understand woes of a married daughter who happens to return to her parents’ house following harassment by in laws, because of a wrong notion that a married daughter is bound to live only at her in laws’ house throughout her life. However, we have realized today, that we ought to understand her woes; before insisting to send her back to in –laws’ house.”

- A Gram Panchayat Sarpanch

Mr. Gaurav Thakkar – Asst. State Coordinator, S.R.C.W (N.M.E.W) – Gujarat made exposition on provisions of RTE Act through PPT and focused on importantance of girl education and also a contribution by PRI members to encourage elementary education to all boys and girls of their villages. The PRI members actively interacted on RTE Act and ground level bottlenecks in educating rural girls.

“We are indeed unhappy over remaining uneducated and we wish, every child of a village should get education. This programme has really helped us getting a clear idea on what efforts we should make to ensure that children in our village are not deprived of their right to education”

– A PRIs Member


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“Because of backwardness of this region there are many problems pertaining to education and acute shortage of teachers in our schools has an adverse effect on education of primary students.”

- A Participant


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Block: Rapar

District: Kutch Date: 22nd January, 2014


Ms Chinamayee Joshi from AWAG initiated an interesting debate

on gender issues among the participants and shared her concern on general and C.S.R. (0 to 6 Year) as per the census reports of 2001 to 2011.

She also engaged the P.R.I. members in discussion on importance of imparting education to girls and successfully drove her point that the society could not survive without a proper balance between men and women. She also focused on what role; a sarpanch could play in combating the evils of eve teasing and molestation of school going girls and college girls.

“The community will have to make concerted efforts to prevent incidents of rape on young girls. I am repentant for not getting education and we all (Family members and villagers) desire that every child in our village go to a school and a need is felt to create awareness on girl child education”. A PRI representative opined at the end of Ms. Chinamaya Joshi’s session. The other local resource person Pro. Deepak Taraiya imparted training on the role and responsibility of PRI representatives in the context of RTE Act through participatory method.

He also sensitized the PRI members on the prevalent gender issues in our society and convincingly drove home his point that, lack of education among the young girls increases her woes at her in-laws house. He focused on a need to eradicate all forms of gender discrimination and importance of girl child education and a significant role which can be played by a village sarpanch in S.M.C.

He compared a gram panchayat sarpanch to a king who could take decisions in the larger interest of his subjects. The participants glued to their seat throughout his session, as he narrated some


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interesting anecdotes to buttress his points on gender biases in our social milieu.

During feedback session the following concerns were shared by the participants in the context of the local social problems.

“Child marriage of young girls as part of “Sata” – (A social practice of exchange of young boys and girls for early marriage in the same families) in Rabari – Ahir Community is the main reason for deprivation of girl child from elementary education in our region”

“The downtrodden people belonging to koli and Thakor communities and S.C. (Dalits) normally inhabit in “Vandh” – “Vadi” (A small farm) on the boarder of a village, and they avoid sending their girl children to a school out of fear for her safety. This is the reason for lack of education among the girls in our area.” – A participant


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Block: Jasdan District: Rajkot

Date: 24th January 2014 Total No. of Participants: 34

Director, Gender Resource Centre explained in details the provisions of RTE Act with focus on the school management committee and role and responsibilities of PRI members in implementation of the said act.

He also showed a short film on gender sensitization and importance of imparting education to girls to the participants who liked it and they offered their positive comments on it.

The PRI representatives remarked that for the first time, they were imparted training on R.T.E. Act. A section of PRI representatives ventilated their grievance against shortage of teachers in primary schools and they were found to be little bit pessimist on this count.

However, all of them promised to play an active role in enrolment and retaining both male and female students in primary schools.

“Women have to face injustice everywhere and they have to tolerate it because of lack of information and courage to come out openly against discriminations. If women get equal opportunities they can also contribute in development of their village.”

- A Woman Participant.

“A Sarpanch has wide powers to develop his village but it is extremely difficult to get community support and to bring all people together. Moreover social evils and anti – social elements like bootleggers – gamblers are the main hindrances in solving problems of the local people. Education of boys and girls is also a social issue which remains unaddressed because of lack of community support”

- A remark by a male Sarpanch


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Both the resource persons, Ms. Cinmayee Joshi and Pro Deepak Taraiya imparted training on importance of education with gender lens through participatory method.

The local employees of SSA under the education department actively participated in this orientation programme.


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Note: Govt. Officers like DEPO, Gender Officer, BRC – CRC, Community Mobilizer, and CDPO Etc also attended the Workshop.

The total numbers of participants 188

District Vadodra Bhavnagar Banaskantha Patan Kutch Rajkot Total

Block Chhota Udaipur Mahuva Amirgadh Varahi Rapar Jasdan

Block Panchayat President

01 00 01 00 00 00 02

Block Panchayat Vice President

01 01 01 00 00 00 03

Block Panchayat member’s

09 01 11 03 04 03 31

Sarpanches 11 13 10 17 22 22 95

Gram Panchayat Members

03 11 09 18 07 09 57

Male 18 26 29 37 26 32 168

Female 07 00 03 01 07 02 20

Total Number of participants

25 26 32 38 33 34 188

Segregation of the Participants


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Findings and observations

� 49% of the participants (PRIs) have received primary education. � 53% of the participant ( PRIs) are in the age group 35- 50 years � 23% of the participant (PRIs) is in the age group 21-35 years. � 26% of PRIs are from samars panchayat. � 47% of PRIs have been holding the post for the last 5 years � Almost all the PRIs are Conversant with the state government’s

“Shala Praveshotsav” and “Gunotsav “ � 85% of PRIs have got their children education at least up to

elementary level. � PRIs members did not know about their roles and responsibility in the

context of RTI Act; prior to this orientation programme. � This orientation programme has added to their knowledge of RTE Act

and it has enhanced their Confidence.

• PRI Members feel that they have been “empowered” as a result of systematic dissemination of provisions of RTI Act.

• Most of the PRI representatives came to know about the definition of elementary education (from 1st to 8th Standard) for the first time.

• Clarity on functions of SMC roles and responsibilities of PRIs members

• The participants shared the following common Issues as part of their feedback

� Shortage of teachers, especially that of science and math’s � An increase in private tuition classes � Unwillingness on the part of trained teachers to serve in hinterland

Recap of Orientation Programme

At a glance


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� Extra assignments to primary teachers over and above their basic duties

� Social practices / evils like child marriage, gender biases, besides poverty are the main reasons for lackadaisical attitude on the part of parents in sending their girl child to a school.

� It was learnt during the orientation programme at Mahuva in Bhavnagar District that elected women representatives of Gram Panchayat are not active in the proceedings of Gram Sabha and their Husbands represent them in official meetings as a proxy.

� The orientation programme appears to have sensitized the PRI members on gender issues and importance of girl child education. This was perceptible during interaction and feedback session at all the six places.


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RTE Orientation “In Camera”

Chhota Udepur - Vadodra

Mahuwa –Bhavnagar Amirgadh - Banaskantha

Rapar – Kutch


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RTE Orientation “In Camera”

Rapar & Jasdan

Varahi – Patan


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GENDER RESOURCE CENTRE

(Women and Child Development Department) Government of Gujarat

Block no. 1, Polytechnic Campus,

Ambavadi, Ahmedabad – 380015

Tel & Fax: +91-079- 26301043

Web site: www.grcgujarat.org

E-mail: [email protected]

jointly conducted by unicef – s.r.c.w-gujarat & gender … · 2020. 8. 7. · 2 10.30 am to 11.00...

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