Education

Heard of model rules? No? When an Act is passed in Parliament, there may still be vague areas that need closer attention. Model rules are written to help implement the Act. But the rules can never be better cooked than the original law was when poured into the parliamentary pressure cooker. No creative legislative masala can help cover up half-baked khana and half-thought laws. So it is with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and its model rules.

Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the nation, above ninety percent.  The way Kerala spends its education money is also strikingly different from the other states.  For illustration, I compare it with the state of West Bengal.  Ideologically the governments of both states are equally committed to basic education and literacy.  Both states have for long had popularly elected Marxist governments.  The conclusions of the comparative analysis are however generally valid.

Since its launch in 2001, SSA has infused substantial new resources into India’s elementary education. In a sense, even before the Fundamental Right to Education became part of the Constitution, SSA has been striving to fulfill that right of the children in the age group of 6-14. Last year the budget allocation for SSA was Rs 7,800 crore, this year it is Rs 11,000 crore. This is on the top of the massive spending on the universalisation of elementary education.

All our efforts have not yet guaranteed easy access and good quality elementary education for all children of India. It is time to think outside the box and the Education Voucher is the most innovative approach for universal guarantee of high-quality education.

The Education Voucher is a coupon offered by the government and covers the cost of education at the school of the student's choice. The schools collect vouchers from students and present them to the government for the amount of money specified on the voucher.