Madhya Pradesh Failed to Implement Right to Education, Says CAG Report

After nearly 15 years of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in Madhya Pradesh, the condition of school education in the poll-bound state is dismal — and has in fact worsened over the years, as a CAG report published last year shows.

The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India assessed the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, until 31 March 2016. It turns out that the state has been unable to ensure the implementation of the RTE norms.

There has been decline in the enrolment of children, there has been a significant rate of drop-outs, while there is a serious lack of information regarding and coverage of children from vulnerable categories — including tribal groups, homeless children and those engaged in child labour.

The CAG found that there has been a steady decline in enrolment of children in elementary education (Classes I to VIII) from 2010-11.

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In five years, the enrolments in elementary education dropped overall by 26.44 lakh or 17% — from 154.24 lakh to 127.80 lakh — between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

This includes a decline of 25.64 lakh or 24% in primary education (Classes I to V) — from 106.58 lakh to 80.94 lakh in this period.

In fact, the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) — the number of children in an age group attending their age-appropriate level of schooling as a proportion of the estimated child population in that age group — for elementary education in Madhya Pradesh was 84%, lesser than the all-India average of 90%.

In two years alone from 2013-14 to 2015-16, the NER at primary level declined by almost 14%.

Meanwhile, nearly one-fourth of the children enrolled in primary level dropped out. There was a drop out of 24% and 23% of the children starting Class I in 2010-11 and 2011-12 who reached Class V during 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively.

During 2011-16, the total number of children who dropped out from elementary education in the state was 42.86 lakh — including drop out of 28.81 lakh children from state government schools and 14.05 lakh from private sector and other management schools.

Moreover, the RTE Act prescribes a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 at the primary level and 35:1 at the upper primary level (Class VI to VIII).

But MP had an adverse PTR in 18,940 state government schools at the primary level and 13,763 schools at upper primary level as on March 2016.

Further, the RTE norms mandate that there should be no single teacher school. An yet, a total of 18,213 state government schools were running with a single teacher as on March 2016.

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The audit found there were 63,851 vacant posts of teachers/head teachers in primary schools and upper primary schools as on March 2016, co-existing with posting of an excess number of teachers in many districts/schools.

Besides, the audit found that the infrastructure facilities prescribed by the RTE Act could not be ensured in a large number of government schools by March 2016.

The report found that there was an adverse Student-Classroom Ratio in 12,769 primary schools and 10,218 upper primary schools as on March 2016.

A sample of 390 schools in various districts were test-checked by the CAG, and it was found that 20% of the schools did not have a separate toilets for boys and girls, while toilets in over 9% of the schools were not in a usable condition. Disabled friendly toilet was not available in 85% of the schools. Safe and adequate drinking water was not available in 9.4% schools; there was no playground in 27% of the schools; and library facility was not available in 34% of the schools. Desks were not available in 75.6% of the schools, where children were sitting on mats.

Worryingly, the CAG report said that vulnerable categories of children were not being covered under surveys conducted by the state government for implementation of the RTE Act and their enrolment for elementary education was not ensured.

In fact, the report stated that the state government could not furnish information regarding coverage of different vulnerable groups, such as primitive tribal groups and the initiatives for them. This is especially concerning, given that MP has a tribal population of over 21%.

The annual Household Survey under the School Chalein Hum Abhiyan for identifying children from ages zero to 14 years did not cover vulnerable categories of children, including those engaged in labour.

Thus, the children of vulnerable categories were not identified for enrolment in school under School Chalein Hum Abhiyan.

Moreover, local authorities had not maintained records, as required, of children in order to monitor enrolment, attendance and learning achievement.

As a result, the data of out-of-school-children (OOSC) in the state was not reliable, found the CAG.

The audit report said that while the National Sample Survey on Estimation of OOSC (September 2014) reported 4.51 lakh OOSC in MP, the Household Survey 2015-16 identified only 0.60 lakh OOSC.

As for finances, the CAG report noted that there was no separate budget for implementation of the RTE Act in MP, and activities under the Act’s provisions were being carried out through the funds available under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The Government of India (GoI) and state government released Rs 7,284.61 crore for SSA — but the School Education Department failed to utilise the funds available for SSA, resulting in large unspent balances and less release of funds from GoI.

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Moreover, under the RTE Act, private unaided schools providing free and compulsory education as required by the Act are supposed to be reimbursed the expenditure. The audit found that Rs 357.70 crore was reimbursed to private schools as on March 2016. However, in three test-checked districts, Rs 1.01 crore was paid as fee reimbursement to 303 unrecognised schools. The CAG also found cases of excess payments and double payments to schools towards fee reimbursement.

The total number of government schools at primary and upper primary level in the state as on March 2016 was 1.14 lakh.

All of these numbers are disappointing, especially in a state that has been ruled by the same government for three terms, and thus presumably had enough time to bring about changes for the better. In fact, the data shows that the state of education has declined under Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who has ruled the state for nearly 13 years now.