India 2018

10
Education
THE essence of Human Resource Development is education, which plays a
significant and remedial role in balancing the socio-economic fabric of the
country. Since citizens of India are its most valuable resource, the billion-strong
nation needs the nurture and care in the form of basic education to achieve a
better quality of life. This warrants an all-round development of our citizens,
which can be achieved by building strong foundations in education. Good quality
education is the foundation of new discoveries, new knowledge, innovation
and entrepreneurship that trigger growth and prosperity of the individual as
well as that of a nation. For this, we need to make our curriculum and pedagogy
relevant to the needs of our society and economy and nurture qualities of
problem solving and creative thinking, learning-by-doing, greater engagement
with the live context, and confident self-expression from a young age.
To lay emphasis on the educational development of students of weaker
sections of the society, a number of innovative initiatives have been taken by
the ministry such as (i) setting up of national monitoring committee on minorities
(ii) setting up of national monitoring committee for education of SCs, STs and
persons with disabilities (iii) student support initiatives such as National Meanscum-Merit
Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS), National Scheme of Incentive to Girls
for Secondary Education (NSIGSE), Special Scholarship Scheme for Jammu and
Kashmir, scheme of interest subsidy on educational loans (iv) regulations on
prevention of discrimination and establishment of ombudsman and (v)
development of an anti-ragging web portal. Currently, the Ministry of Human
Resource Development works through two departments : Department of School
Education and Literacy, and Department of Higher Education
Ministry of Human Resource Development adopted a fresh approach to
meet its challenges. It is this approach that will define the thrust areas and ensure
that all the goals with the right value system, sensitivity and responsibility are
achieved. The various policies and programmes of the ministry have successfully
enabled the access to quality, inclusive, affordable and meaningful education to
children and the people across the length and breadth of the country.
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education and Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan
Article 21-A of the Constitution of India and its consequent legislation, the Right
of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became operative
in the country in 2010. The RTE Act confers the right to elementary education
on all children, in the age group of 6-14 years, on the basis of equality of
opportunity in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and
standards. All states and UTs have notified their state RTE Rules. The centrally