Standard of Education in Government and Private Primary Schools

The steps being taken by Government to improve the standard of education in primary schools include sanction of 19.14 lakh teacher posts, setting up of 2,01,943 primary schools and 1,56,792 upper primary schools, construction of more than 18 lakh additional classrooms, over 7 lakh toilets and 2 lakh drinking water facilities for government schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Besides, 30 day induction training to newly recruited teachers 20 day in-service training to the teachers, distribution of free textbooks and uniforms and financial support for context-specific quality improvement interventions are some other steps being taken for this purpose. 

Section 12 (1) © of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, inter-alia provides that an unaided private school shall admit in class 1 ( or pre primary class, as the case may be), to the extent of at least twenty-five per cent of the strength of that class, children belonging to weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood and provide them free and compulsory elementary education till its completion. Some states have notified norms for classifying disadvantaged groups and weaker sections and initiated the admission of such children in the private un-aided schools and also mechanisms to monitor such admissions. 
This information was given by Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. D. Purandeswari in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.