Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act. The act came into effect in April 2010 making eight years of free education a fundamental right for every child in India. Even though it has been almost four years since the RTE Act was enacted, there is little momentum on its implementation in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

A new evaluation system, continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) is being rolled out in entire districts of UP but there is a lack of understanding on technical aspects of it. In the second phase new school management committee (SMCs) have been elected in democratic and transparent manner in various districts with active engagement of civil society organizations and education department. Further capacity building of SMCs on RTE and formation of school development plan (SDP) is the main challenge ahead. Lack of “State Commission for Protection of Child Rights’ (SCPCR) which is monitoring body for implementation of RTE in the state and lack of larger number of teachers and their training is also major area to be addressed through advocacy in this year.

Impact by partner

• With the advocacy effort of Lokmitra enrolment drive and survey of out of school children had been started before new session start (July).
• With the effort of advocacy initiative government has included suggestions for democratic and transparent formation of SMCs which includes provision of quorum during election of SMC members, taking female members in leadership position, involvement of NGOs and display name of selected members in public.
• For proper formation of SMCs, awareness materials have been developed, printed and shared in 50 districts.
• There has been one state level, one regional level and 18 district 18 district level meetings of Basic Shiksha Manch with active participation of 500 members from 40 NGOs, SMC emmebrs and teachers of 35 districts.