Schools In Rural Areas

Question by: Anubhav Mohanty

Question

1. The rural coverage of schools by the Government in the country during the last three yearsalong with the goals set;
2. whether the Government has any plans of setting up schools at every 5 kilometers radiusin the rural areas and if so, the details thereof; and
3. the time by which it is likely to be implemented?

Answer by:Minister of Human Resource Development (Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’)

Answer

• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education(RTE) Act, 2009, mandates the appropriate Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighbourhood school.
• In pursuance of Section 6 of the Act, the Central RTE Rules has notified the area or limits of neighbourhood as one kilometer, within which a primary school and 3 kilometer within which an upper primary school, has to be established. The States have notified area or limits of their neighbourhood norms in their state RTE Rules, factoring in their State specific condition, for opening of schools.
• Further, centrally sponsored Integrated Scheme for School Education, namelySamagra Shiksha, aims to provide universal access to secondary school within a distance of 5 Km of a habitation by providing support to States and UTs for establishment of new schools by up-gradation of upper primary schools to secondary schools. As reported by States/UTs in their respective Annual Work Plan, the habitations covered in Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary level during the last three years is as under: