A sub-group of Planning Commission set up to prepare the next five year plan on elementary education is examining the possibility of widening the reach of the RTE Act to include children between the age of four and six.
Another sub-group of the Central Advisory Board of Education, set up by the HRD Ministry recently to examining the possibility of extending the law to cover secondary education up to class 10, will be asked to look into the inclusion of pre-school learning.
Sources said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed that a final decision on increasing the ambit of the RTE should be taken by the end of July.
The inclusion of children between the ages of four and six would mean reworking the ambit of the Ministry of women and child development, which is implementing a pre-school education programme for children below the age of six through its Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS).
According to sources, the Ministry does not want to give up its pre-school education programme. It has already initiated efforts to strengthen its pre-school education programme across the country and has marked it as an important agenda item for discussion at a meeting with state ministers, which began here on Wednesday.
However, the NAC has favoured a comprehensive national policy for early childhood and pre-school education underlining that the policy must identify and propose appropriate curricular modules, promote age-appropriate learning and develop pre-school teacher-training modules and mechanisms.
It is also of the view that the WCD ministry’s pre-school education programme should cover children up to the age of four. An inter-ministerial task force, headed by Planning Commission member Sayeeda Hameed, is looking at restructuring ICDS.
In its present form, the Right to Education Act stipulates to provide free and compulsory education from classes 1 to 8 to children between the age group of 6 to 14.
The biggest hurdle in expansion of the RTE Act to bring pre-school education under its ambit is the logistical and financial pressure that it will entail. The move will mean adding about four crore children to the free and compulsory education programme. It will also require setting up additional about 10 lakh classrooms and hiring at least 10 lakh trained nursery teachers.
However, it is argued that the inclusion of pre-school learning under the free and compulsory education law could pave the way for reforming early years learning.