​​Problem statement

 

The Indian constitution provides right to free and compulsory education for the children between the age of 6 to 14 years.  In 2012, the “Right to Education" Act (RTE Act) came in force and it converted the right to formal education from 3 to 14yrs. Until then, only the free education from 6 to 14yrs was  provided through the BMC schools. However, the big question arose, Who will cater to 3 to 6 yr old children? Various petitions were filed for the Governement to take the responsibilty. Meanwhile, various NGOs, we being the pioneer one, worked towards the implementation of the RTE Act,2012 for 3 to 6yr old children.

 

Under the RTE Act, 25% seats in private schools are supposed to be reserved for the poor (whose annual income is less than Rs. 1 Lakh) but private schools are unwilling to give these seats. Further, the schools say that they will admit students at the entry level, in the 1st Std. However,  at that stage they deny admissions stating that the underprivileged child is not at par with their students. Unless the underprivileged child gets equal education opportunity at pre-primary level, how can s/he  be at par?

 

If you search the results for admissions under RTE act for underprivileged you will come across all the results which state how the act has failed. Private education is becoming so expensive that even middle class is finding it beyond reach. In such circumstances where do underprivileged children go to get pre-primary education? Hence, we started our RTE Schools India in the year 2012 with 18 students who did not get admitted in any school as per the RTE Act.

Project Justification

 

In 2012 when the Right to Education act came in, we inaugurated RTE act information RATH (vehicle) at the hands of the then Governor and drove across the city, from Colaba to Dahisar slum areas, helped underprivileged parents with the procedure of filling up the forms etc. and securing admissions under the RTE Act. Since there was always resistance from the private schools, the ratio of seats available and applications received by us were always a mismatch. Hence, to provide education for those who could not get admissions in the mainstream school, we started our first school in the year 2012. Today we run 6 pre primary schools called “RTE Schools INDIA” ,from where, till date 460 children have passed out and have got admission in 1st std. in private schools under RTE Act. The parents of our children are so happy that their children are getting quality pre-primary education free of cost. Thereafter, they are also able to get admissions for their children in private schools in 1 st std.

 

After various court cases, the Hon'ble Bombay High Court passed an order to start formal pre-primary education through BMC in partnership with NGOs under their CSR. Witnessing our active involvement in implementation of the RTE Act, the BMC offered us to start 15 such classes in P-South and H-West Ward.
 

We have come a long way from 18 students in 2012 to nearly 900 students in 2020!