The decks may have been cleared for enforcing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act - called RTE for short - but the real challenge starts now. While the state is ready with the draft rules and promises to begin the process of implementing them soon, a number of questions remain. For instance there is much speculation over whether the children from weaker economic backgrounds who will be a minority in elite schools,occupying only 25 per cent of their seats , will fit in or feel out of place in a classroom.
“It is going to be extremely difficult. The government seems to have assumed that every child of a particular age should get the same education, ignoring the fact that every child’s developmental needs are different. In Grade 1, children learn based on their pre -school experience and what they are exposed to at home with their parents and within their community. Moreover, many schools such as Inventure offer activity based education. Mixing different crowds would make this extremely difficult. We are not sure how to go about it. Diluting what I offer to the class seems like a solution , but I would not be happy about doing that. I feel there are better ways to achieve inclusion,” says Nooraine Fazal, CEO and Co-founder, Inventure Academy.
Sheela Bolar, pincipal, Baldwin Girls’ High School and member of the ICSE Council, believes that children can be very cruel without realising it and bringing in those from a different economic background into classrooms may give rise to quarrels and fisticuffs. " There will be some friction. Also, even if schools do manage to put together food for this group of children their classmates are always going to bring something better, which they will also want,” she worries.
But is this really a cause for worry when many top schools of the city, including the ones run by missionaries, seem to be already providing quality education while maintaining a good balance of students from various backgrounds. Fr Melwin Mendonca, SJ, principal, St Joseph's PU College, Anekal, says the educational institutions its management runs have a mix of both rich and poor students from various religious minorities and socially backward classes .
“All the children are treated equally and we have seen that the rich-poor divide doesn't come in the way of children's interaction. In the lower classes like Grade 1, where all the children don't have the same levels of social exposure and learning, we conduct some special classes for those who lag behind. It has worked well and can be replicated,” he says confidently . A principal of a reputed international school in the city too thinks of RTE as “a challenge and opportunity.”
“We have no past experience in this as we have always dealt with children from only a certain section of society. The new children stand to benefit quite significantly as they will be going to some of the best schools. This will be a challenge , but the gap has to be bridged somewhere. Fortunately, children do not have prejudices like adults do. I don't think they will find the new situation difficult. As many schools have already done it, I don't think it is impossible to achieve,” he concedes.