Speech on Right to Education

Good morning to one and all present over here. 

My name is Yash and I’m here to present a speech on “the right to education”. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which lays out the provisions for free and compulsory education for all children aged between 6-14 years.  

How important is education in today’s world? 

• It is indeed a necessity for every single child, whether it is rich or poor it must be given access to knowledge and literacy. 
• Without education, you can’t comprehend the world around you. 
• Theory always precedes practical. 
• Education is a right provisioned by our Constitution, which needs to reach each child. 
• Education does wonders for ambitious kids with big dreams. Education paves way for greatness. 
• Education bridges the gap between the various sections and divisions of society. 
• Education means increase of knowledge, which in turn means increase in the proficiency of anything specific.  

The RTE Act consolidates these words specifically in its context – ‘free and compulsory’. Free education means that every child admitted by his or her parents to an appropriated government aided school is liable for prevention from pursuing and completing education because any kind of fee or charges.

Compulsory education means that the appropriate Government (central or state) is obliged to provide admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all the children falling in the age group of 6-14 years. 

We being the students of a well-reputed and maintained school must also have concern for the underprivileged children born in poor families and develop empathy for them. Sympathy and empathy are two very different words.

Sympathy only makes you think compassionately, but empathy makes you do what you can to change what you are compassionate about. We must encourage our friends and family to support them and aid them with funds and other resources like books, clothes, food, shelter, etc. to also make them feel loved and valued as we are. 

Freely you have received; freely give.-Matthew 5:8 

Education is not at all about books and knowledge. If it doesn’t compel you to go ahead and do something about the problems you just read about, what is the use of it? If the partial knowledge doesn’t compel you to hunger for more and quest for deeper understanding and application, its all just only ink on paper. 

The RTE act also requires all private schools run by any organization to reserve 25% of seats to the underprivileged children. Even the kids who had to drop out of school for any possible reason are covered under this act to be able to resume their studies with their peers.  

Even the quality of education is kept into consideration under this act. Considerations such as school facilities, infrastructure, teacher-student ratio are made in the act. 

Although all these provisions and requirements have been made under the act, the statistics tell another story. Until February 2017, only 10% of the total government schools fulfil the norms laid out in the RTE standard.

While the Government can congratulate themselves for including every child under the age of 14 under the act but in reality, only 54% of the total children are presently able to pursue their education.

So, roughly half of the total children in underdeveloped regions are deprived of education which leaves about 35 million kids out of school. In higher education sector, it gets even worse with an enrolment ratio of just 24% in the 18-23 age group. 

Therefore, my dear friends and respected elders let us take some initiative and join hands with the Government and various NGOs in promoting the cause of ‘free and compulsory’ education for all. Only then can India be called a developed country when citizens will understand his or her responsibility and their value. 

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”   ― Nelson Mandela 

 Thank you.