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SUMMARY:Is the Right to Education (India) an Inclusive Act? - Akanksha Bap
 na\, Centre for Civil Society\, New Delhi and Visiting Fellow\, Centre for
  Commonwealth Education\, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
DTSTART:20131017T113000Z
DTEND:20131017T123000Z
UID:TALK47784@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jill Gather
DESCRIPTION:In 2009\, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Educati
 on (RTE) became a law in India. The Act has ratified education as a fundam
 ental right and seeks to promote equitable access to education for all chi
 ldren up to the age of 14 years. In this presentation\, I discuss the mixe
 d nature of inclusiveness of the act. On the one hand\, the stringent norm
 s for operating schools in India pose restrictions on private school owner
 s as well as parents\, and distort the incentives for improving quality of
  education. On the other hand\, the Act mandates reservation of 25% of the
  entry-level seats in all private schools for government-sponsored student
 s from economically and weaker sections (EWS) of society with the rational
 e that this will lead to better learning outcomes for EWS students and inc
 reased levels of integration between children from different sections of s
 ociety.\n\nIn this presentation\, I discuss this apparent disconnect throu
 gh a study of the social and financial implications of the Act’s norms a
 nd standards using a small sample study conducted in Delhi\, and simultane
 ously examine the opportunities and pitfalls of this reservation policy. F
 inally\, through the lens of a study on primary school vouchers given to 4
 00 randomly selected students in Delhi\, I propose a mechanism to reconcil
 e the two contradictory aspects of the Act.\n
LOCATION:Room GS5 Donald McIntyre Building\, Faculty of Education\, 184 Hi
 lls Road\, Cambridge
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