Awareness of Right to Education among Elementary School Teachers: An Empirical Analysis
Rajni Kansra1 and Pooja Kansra2*
1Research Scholar, Department of Education, Punjabi University Patiala
2Assistant Professor, School of Business, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara
ABSTRACT:
Education is important not merely as means to other ends, but it is an attribute that is valued in itself, by most individuals. More importantly, it is a critical invasive instrument for bringing about social, economic and political inclusion and integration of people, particularly those excluded from the mainstream of any society. For the development of education RTE act has been initiated .In the present paper an attempt have been made to know the awareness of RTE among elementary school teachers in the Amritsar. The awareness of Right to Education among elementary school teacher is to immense importance for the welfare of the society as well as nation at large. The study highlighted that majority of elementary school teachers are aware of right to education, government and private, urban and rural teachers do not differ significantly in their awareness of right to education. Whereas male and female elementary school teachers differs significantly in their awareness of right to education act. Accordingly the government should promote the awareness of right to education act that will raise the enrollment ratio in school which leads to improvement in education.
KEYWORDS: Right to Education, Elementary School Teachers, Awareness, Education, Economic Development.
SECTION-I
INTRODUCTION:
Education is the main conduit for economic and social progress. Apart from industrialization and urbanization, education has been one of the important agents of social change. As the economy develops, demand for skilled workers increases. A strong foundation to meet this demand should be paid by strengthening primary education. Primary education is of prime importance. It is an established fact that basic education improves the level of human well-being especially with regard to life expectancy, infant mortality and nutritional status of the children. Studies have shown that universal basic education significantly contributed to the human growth [11].
The Right to Education Act (RTE) or The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009, describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010. The bill was approved by the cabinet on 2 July 2009. Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 20 July 2009 and the Lok Sabha on 4 August 2009.
It received Presidential assent and was notified as law on 26 August 2009 as The Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The law came into effect in the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1 April 2010, the first time in the history of India a law was brought into force by a speech by the Prime Minister [12].
Right of children to free and compulsory education act become a reality and first fundamental right that has been added to the constitution since India attained independence. The act makes its obligatory on the state to guarantee right to education and “ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by every child of 6 to 14 years.
According to this act, financial constraints should not prevent child from completing elementary education, which means even if a child lives in a remote area, providing free transportation will be part of the child’s entitlement to education. If Right to Education Act is implemented successfully, India can emerge as a global leader in achieving the millennium development goal of ensuring that all children complete their elementary education by 2015 as set by UNESCO. Teachers are like pillars for a school system upon which roof of education is supported, thus, it is important that teachers should be aware of Right to Education. If teacher are well aware of Right to Education then only he/she can make the students to enjoy its benefits and motivate them to enroll in education. Moreover, if the teacher is fully awakened about the Right to Education only then he/she will not dare to exploit the child [13].
Salient features of Right to Education Act (2009)
1. Children between 6 to 14 years are to be provided with free and compulsory education.
2. School must not fail kids upto class VIII.
3. School must admit children without school leaving certificate.
4. Penalties for taking fees.
5. Penalties for subjecting children parents to screening procedure.
6. Penalties for subjecting children or parents to screening procedure.
7. Penalties for curriculum not being consistent with constitution of India.
8. Penalties for ignoring school responsibility.
9. Private schools provide 25 percent seats to weaker sections.
10. Teachers who are not adequately qualified have 5 years to acquire necessary qualification.
11. Inclusion of children who are disadvantages because of disability.
The objective of the present study is to examine the awareness of Right to Education among elementary school teachers. The specifically objectives of the present study are defined as under:
1. To study the awareness of Right to Education among elementary school teachers.
2. To compare awareness of Government and Private elementary school teachers regarding Right to Education.
3. To compare the level of awareness of Rural and Urban elementary school teachers regarding Right to Education.
4. To study whether the male and female elementary school teachers differ in their awareness regarding Right to Education
With the orientation to achieve the stated objectives following hypothesis has been formulated which possibly justifies the important variables of the study:
Hypothesis of the present study:
1. Majority of elementary school teachers are aware of Right to Education.
2. Government and private elementary school teachers do not differ significantly regarding their awareness of Right to Education.
3. Rural and urban elementary school teachers do not differ significantly regarding their awareness of Right to Education.
4. Male and female elementary school teachers differ significantly with respect to their awareness of Right to Education.
To accomplish the objective, the paper has been divided into five broad sections. Section I introduces role and relevance of education in India. Section II deals with review of the work done on primary education. Section III presents a research methodology to work out the awareness of RTE. Section IV examines the awareness of RTE among elementary school teachers in Amritsar .The Section V concludes the discussion along with policy implications.
SECTION-II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Patel (1958) suggested that there should be free and compulsory education for seven years and mother tongue should be medium of instruction. Primary Education should be the concern of the central government. Tiwari (1964) conducted a study to trace the development of primary education in state of UP. The finding of his study revealed that the progress of primary education was retarded due to the policy of giving meagre grant-in-aid to indigenous schools and opening of departmental schools. Kamalamma (1969) identified the problems of primary education in Kerala. The findings of his study revealed that this is the only state that achieved hundred percent enrolments in the age group of 6 to 11. But the cost of the education in the state should be reduced. Das (1979) analyzed the administration issues related to the elementary education in the state of Assam. His study highlighted that there were many difficulties in the administration of elementary education in the state of Assam. Dutta (1985) conducted a study on primary education in the state of Calcutta. The objective of his study was to know the conditions of Primary Education in the state. The findings of his study revealed that there is a problem in the syllabus and its coverage, students and their background and between the girls and boys enrolment ratio etc. Bhargava (1990) conducted a study regarding the growth of educational facilities and its enrolment at the elementary level. The findings of his study suggested that there was a steady growth of educational facilities at the primary stage. But still in enrolment the girls and SC were having a lower enrolment ratio. So the government should come to promote the education of girls and SC in the country. Bimlesh (1992) analysed the growth and development of primary education in Punjab from 1947 to 1987 with respect to development of schools, teachers, enrolment and expenditure etc. In his study he revealed that although there has been increase in the enrolment ratio but the overall expenditure in terms of total is very low. Baldaci et al. (2002) estimated that there was a high degree of correlation between the government spending and primary education. The study also suggested that if the government want to achieve millennium goals of universal primary education enrolment then government should spend more on the primary education. Rena (2007) stated that there was need to change the educational pattern in India. The study revealed that children dropped out school to assist in household and agricultural activities. The study also recommended that budgetary allocations should increase so as to encourage the primary education participation and provide some form of financial assistance to the students. Sonal (2010) suggested that there is a need to introduce reforms in primary education and hence to increase budgetary amount high for primary education.
On the basis of the literature review it is evident that in no study an attempt had been made to identify the awareness of RTE act. Thus study in hand tries to examine the awareness of RTE act.
SECTION-III
RESEARCH METHDOLOGY
The present study falls under the category of descriptive research as it involves the description, analysis and interpretation of data and the purpose of this research is a clear description of materials and phenomena under investigation. In the present study purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of sample. A sample of 200 teachers, teaching in elementary schools in Amritsar district was involved. A self-prepared questionnaire was used to assess the awareness of Right to Education Act among elementary school teachers.
Statistical Techniques Used-
1. Descriptive statistics: Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data.
2. Inferential Statistics :‘t’ test was applied to compare the results obtained through descriptive statistics.
SECTION-IV
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
The following table deals with the profile of the respondents selected for the present study.
TABLE 1: PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS
|
Gender |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Male |
100 |
50 |
|
Female |
100 |
50 |
|
Total |
200 |
100 |
|
Age |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Less than 35 |
58 |
29 |
|
35-45 |
130 |
65 |
|
45-55 |
10 |
5 |
|
55 and Above |
2 |
1 |
|
Total |
200 |
100 |
|
Marital Status |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Single |
22 |
11 |
|
Married |
178 |
89 |
|
Total |
200 |
100 |
Source: Survey Results
The above table deals with profile of the respondents. In the present study equal number of male and female have been selected. Twenty nine percent of the respondents were in the age group of less than 35 years, sixty five percent of teachers were in 35-45 years, five percent of the them were between 45-55 years and only 0ne percent in the age bracket of 55 and Above. Eighty percent of the respondents were married and eleven percent of them were not married.
HYPOTHESIS I: MAJORITY OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AWARE OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION:
In order to verify Hypothesis I, scores obtained by the elementary school teachers on ‘Awareness scale of Right to Education Act’ was entered in the table. Scores and percentages of teachers according to the frequencies were calculated. The results of the analysis are shown in table1.
|
Awareness Scores |
Frequencies |
Percentage |
|
0-5 |
17 |
8.5 |
|
6-10 |
20 |
1.0 |
|
11-15 |
34 |
17.0 |
|
16-20 |
121 |
60.5 |
|
21-25 |
08 |
4.0 |
|
Total |
200 |
100 |
Source: Survey Results
It is clear from the above table that maximum frequency lays in the class interval 16 to 20 i.e. 121 elementary school teachers having awareness of average level towards right to education. The percentage came out to be 60.5% of the total sample. In all 64% of the total sample scored above 16 in the present investigation. Hence, 64 % of the elementary school teachers are aware of Right to Education.
On the basis of above discussion, It is evident that majority of elementary school teachers are aware of Right to Education Act. It could be due to the reason that in the present age, the media whether it is T.V, Newspaper or Internet plays an important role in spreading information. So the teachers get information regarding educational schemes and policies easily.
In order to test the Hypothesis-II, data were obtained with the help of questionnaire and scores were entered in the tables. The Hypothesis was tested by calculating, mean and standard Deviation.The hypothesis was furthered examined by applying’ test. The result of analysis is being shown in table 2
TABLE 3: MEAN, STANDARD DEVIATION AND ‘t’ VALUE OF GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON AWARENESS SCORES
|
Variable |
N |
Mean |
S.D. |
‘t’ |
Interpretation |
|
Govt. |
100 |
14.98 |
4.559 |
.541 |
Not significant |
|
Private |
100 |
14.63 |
4.590 |
Source: Survey Results
A careful glance at the table 3 reveals that obtained‘t’ value 0.541 is insignificant, which indicates that Govt. and Private elementary school do not differ significantly regarding their awareness of Right to Education Act. But a comparative study of means scores of awareness of both the groups is suggestive of the fact that both are moderately aware of the Right to Education Act. This moderate awareness scores may be due to fact that Newspaper, T.V, Internet and Magazines etc are easily available at work place as well as at home.
HYPOTHESIS III: RURAL AND URBAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS DO NOT DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY REGARDING THEIR AWARENESS OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION.
The hypothesis was tested by calculating mean and standard deviation. The Hypothesis was further examined by applying test.The results of the analysis is being shown in Table 4.
TABLE 4: MEAN, STANDARD DEVIATION AND ‘t’ VALUE OF RURAL AND URBAN TEACHERS ON AWARENESS SCORES OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION
|
Variable |
N |
Mean |
S.D. |
‘t’ |
Interpretation |
|
Rural |
100 |
14.40 |
4.628 |
1.069 |
Not significant |
|
Urban |
100 |
15.15 |
4.500 |
Source: Survey Results
Table 4 reveals that the value of ‘t’ is 1.069 which is less than table value. The magnitude value of ‘t’ is 1.069 which is insignificant. However, comparative study of mean scores of urban elementary teachers (15.15) are more regarding Right to Education act as compared to teachers of rural elementary teachers (14.40). This implies that teachers of elementary schools in urban area are more aware regarding Right to Education Act as compared to teachers of rural areas. In Urban areas, more facilities are available for teachers such as computer, internet, journals, and magazines and have access to well-equipped libraries. Due to competition among teachers, they have to keep their knowledge up to date. On the other hand rural teachers have less access to such facilities.
In order to test Hypothesis-IV, data was obtained with the help of questionnaire. In it mean, standard deviation was calculated. The hypothesis examined by applying ‘t’ test. The result of analysis is being shown in Table 5.
TABLE 5: MEAN, STANDARD DEVIATION AND ‘t’ VALUE OF MALE AND FEMALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON AWARENESS SCORES OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION
|
Variable |
N |
Mean |
S.D. |
‘t’ |
Interpretation |
|
Male |
100 |
16.07 |
3.825 |
4.068 |
Significant |
|
Female |
100 |
15.15 |
4.500 |
Source: Survey Results
An examination of the Table 4 that significant differences exist in the mean scores of male and female elementary school teacher on awareness scores which is evidence from ‘t’ value of magnitude 4.068.Further, a comparative study of mean awareness score of male and female elementary teacher reveal that males are slightly higher aware of female because male teachers are active and intensive reader of Newspaper, Magazines and get more time to listen news etc. They have much knowledge about the latest information. On the other hand, female elementary teachers due to responsibility family and other work do not have time to explore the latest information. So they are less aware from above discussion our Hypothesis stands accepted.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
1. Majority of Elementary school teachers (60%) are aware of Right to Education.
2. Government and Private Elementary school do not differ significantly (t=.541) in their awareness of Right to Education. Thus, it is concluded that both Govt. and Private Elementary teachers have equal information of Right to Education Act.
3. Urban and Rural Elementary school teachers do not differ significantly in their awareness of Right To Education Thus, it is concluded that rural & urban elementary teachers have equal level of information regarding Right To Education.
4. Male and Female Elementary school teaches differ significantly in their awareness of Right to Education Act (t=4.068) Mean score of Male teachers (16.07) is higher as compared to female teachers (13.54). Therefore it is concluded that Male Elementary School teachers are more aware of Right to Education Act than female Elementary teachers.
SECTION -V
CONCLUSION:
In the present study an attempt has been to assess the awareness of RTE among elementary school teachers. The study is of great importance in the present time because its findings are totally relevant in the modern period. The awareness of Right to Education among elementary school teacher is to immense importance for the welfare of the society as well as nation at large. Different commissions, committees, government and non-governmental agencies have supported the importance of Right to Education. Knowledge of RTE act, to elementary school teachers can help them to strengthen the application of this act. As it was found in the present study that rural elementary school teachers are not much aware of Right to Education act thus they can be engaged in in-service programmes such as seminar, tea-time courses, and refresher courses on Right to Education act. As it found in the present study that female Elementary School teachers due to over burden of responsibilities are not much aware of Right to Education, so it can be imparted to them through in service and pre-service programme. Right to Education act can be initiated as a part of teacher training programmes.
REFERENCES:
1. Baldaci, E, Maria T and Luiz D.M. (2002), More on the effectiveness of public spending on Health care and education: IMF working paper, WP/02/09
2. Bharagava, S.M.(1990), A Study of the growth of educational facilities and enrolment at the elementary stage in India, as quoted in Fifth Survey Of Educational Research by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1988-92), Vol. II, pp.1133.
3. Bimlesh, B (1982), A study of the growth and development of the primary education in Punjab from 1947 to 1987, as quoted in Fifth Survey Of Educational Research by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1988-92), Vol. II, pp.1134.
4. Das (1979), A Comparative Study of Educational wastage in urban and rural areas, as quoted in Fourth Survey of Research In Education by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi Vol.II, pp.1263.
5. Dutta, B.(1985) , Primary Education in Calcutta-An Anthropological Appraisal, as quoted in Fourth Survey Of Research In Education by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, pp.1270.
6. Kamalamma, G.(1969), History and Problems of Primary Education in Kerala, as quoted in First Survey Of Research In Education by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1974), pp.63.
7. Patel H.P. (1958) , Basic Education and its working in the state of Bombay (A Historical Reivew), as quoted in First Survey of Research In Education by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1974).
8. Rena, R (2007), Factors Affecting the Enrollment and the Retention of Student at Primary Education in Andhra Pradesh-A Village level study; Ginea University of technology Essays in Education, Vol. 22, pp. 102-112.
9. Sonal, R (2010), Issues In Education in India since 1950; Published by Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi (2010).
10. Tiwari, D.D(1964), Primary Education in Uttar Pradesh, as quoted in First Survey Of Research in Education by M.B. Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1974), p.80.Buch, (NCERT), Delhi, (1974), pp.80.
11. http://www.tn.gov.in/spc/tenthplan/CH_4_1.PDF viewed on [12-1-2014]
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_Children_to_Free_and_Compulsory_Education_Act
13. http://mhrd.gov.in/rte
Received on 10.04.2014
Revised on 12.06.2014
Accepted on 10.09.2014
© A&V Publication all right reserved
Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 5(3): July-September, 2014, 264-269