Mission Buniyaad: Bridging the gap between the Right to Education and the Right to

Learn

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I’ll learn.” ~ Benjamin
Franklin

For any country, the children are the foundation to its development and existence as well.
Unless the foundation is strong and dug deep, it’s impossible to take it to the heights that it is
expected to rise to. Education lies at the root of strengthening this foundation. Over the
course of time, there have been many programmes and initiatives to see to it yet they haven’t
been able to bridge the gap between school going children and the actual literacy level of the
children. What problem lies at the root of it all? It can be attributed to the heterogeneous
composition of cultural diversity in a geographically united country, it can be the gap
between the instruction of the teachers and the grasping ability of the students, it can be the
lack of a proper method of evaluation of the development made by the students and it can
also be the standardisation of the minds of the students. This paper aims at going deep into
the problem while trying to comprehend a way to evolve the basic elementary education to a
level that ensures a widened perspective of all the aspects that education is constituted of.
Right to Education is counted among the fundamental human rights and the Right to learn is a
wider developed concept of applied and ensured aspects of education for children. Mission
Buniyaad, an initiative launched by Government of Delhi stands as one of the bridges to help
our country move towards the Right to Learn.

The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the
Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age
group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by
law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009,
which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that
every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality
in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. ‘Compulsory
education’ casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide
and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in
the 6-14 age group. With this, India has moved forward to a rights based framework that casts
a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child
right as enshrined in the Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of
the RTE Act.

Right to learn is constituted of a lot many aspects along with the right to education. Just free
and compulsory elementary education is not enough to ensure a sustainable development of
children as human resources, it is far more important to understand whether the children are
getting anywhere useful because of that education. If Right to Education is the fundamental
step, then the Right to Learn would be the secondary follow up step towards the goal of a
developed nation. The Mid-Day Meal, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and a lot more programmes
and initiatives has helped our country to ensure higher enrolment of children to the
government schools yet it hasn’t resulted in good academic reports. An all-rounded
perspective towards the growth of the students, needs to be implemented and to assured of its
credibility as well. That is where Mission Buniyaad comes into the picture.

In 2017, only 48% students joining class 9 could read their textbook fluently and merely 50%
could solve numerical on division. Hence, the focus was from 6th grade itself so that they
don't reach higher classes with such a weak foundation. Further, as per the recently conducted
National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017, in Delhi, among the government and government
aided schools of class 3, about 57% students secured average score in Language and 53% in
Maths. It means 43% students cannot "Read small text with comprehension" at grade
appropriate level and 47% students cannot, among other things, solve simple addition and
subtraction problem. Similarly, in class 5, only 52% scored average in language and 43% in
Maths. It means, 48% students cannot "Read and comprehend storybooks independently" and
57% cannot apply "operations of numbers in daily life situation".

Therefore, in the meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister and attended by senior officials
of Delhi Government and Local bodies on February 15, 2018, it was decided that "Mission
Buniyaad" be launched from April 2, 2018 to ensure all children of classes 3 to 9 in the
schools of Directorate of Education and local bodies, as the case may be, can read grade
appropriate texts and solve basic maths operations. Accordingly, a 3-month long campaign
was formally launched on April 11, 2018 with the goal that "there should be no child in any
of the classes who cannot read his/her textbook or solve basic numerical in Maths". It covers
early grades as well so that no more learning backlog gets created and includes schools of
Municipal Corporations, NDMC and Delhi Cantonment.
Under this campaign, the specific objectives sought to be achieved for classes 3 to 5 students
are that all students should be able to fluently read short story with comprehension in
Hindi/Urdu, write short sentences and solve operations involving subtractions with borrowing
and simple 2 digits by 1 division in numerical and word problem form. For classes 6 to 9 the
objectives are that all students should be able to read advance text (a paragraph from the
textbook) in Hindi/Urdu, write response in one or more sentences in Hindi/Urdu and solve
operations involving divisions of 3 digits by 1 digit in numerical and word problem form.

Most of us still find problem to comprehend if we come across mathematical problem. Some
find history boring either because they can’t memorise dates or they find it difficult to
remember past events. Even the adults these days find it difficult to read maps. They lack the
sense of direction. India will be fastest growing economy by 2020, but what if the people
can’t count the money they are making?

Well, this is the story of the present generation which is the result of the education system
that we have come from. But lately, the dynamics have changed. The Central Board of
Secondary Education launched the CCE form of evaluation and under this assessment were
conducted in different forms for the overall improvement in learning and personality
development and the students were compulsorily promoted to next class till 8th std. This
helped in curbing the dropout rates but the dropout rate after 9th didn’t fall. The primary
reason for this was identified that more than 40% students in 9 th std were always weak in
analysing things such as directions, languages, division or multiplication, reading and
writing, etc. after a survey by SCERT. This brought the problem of poor basics of these
students to light.

This clearly highlights the fault in the approach of education system. For example: Arjun may
be bad at standardized texts, but he is an amazing artist and can think abstractly. Avinay may
always score less in tests but he presents strong and convincing arguments. Ajay may always
find it difficult to stay awake in class but he has impressive work ethic and is good at
practical applications.

Psychologist Charles Spearman gave this theory of intelligence in the 20th century which he
titled the “g factor”. It was a measure of the cognitive abilities across variables. He argued
that the psychologists could gain a better perspective on an individual when they evaluate a
wide array of intelligence rather than specific intelligence (such as that measured by an IQ
test).
It is a given fact that no two students have the same aptitude. If there are more than 3lacs
students studying in government schools of Delhi, and more add to it every year, there is
possibility that many of them may lack on understanding what’s being taught in class as they
may not be able to catch up with what is being taught.

The problem with the education system can be learnt with a simple example – A test was
being conducted in a jungle wherein a bear, a monkey, a dog, a frog and a tiger were
competitors, an elephant was an invigilator. The test was to climb a tree and reach it’s top.
The one who took less time was awarded the best grades. So, it was very obvious that the
monkey would have been awarded the best grades owing its ability to climb trees faster. Had
the test been who would cover a distance in shortest time, our obvious winner would have
been the tiger.

The curriculum, the tests, the teaching methods, the parents involvement, the teachers’
connection with students, all play a very important role in assessing a student’s ability to
perform well given his differentiated aptitude in comparison to the rest of students and if any
of it is not as per student’s requirement, an academic failure is bound to happen.

It is of utmost importance to accept and understand that the needs of different students are
different and a method needs to be devised to make sure that no student is left out of the
umbrella of an all rounded education and development. A change in the evaluation process,
the method of instruction, proper attention to all of the students according to their academic
needs and a good understanding of their self-concept are all key to this evolution.

Review Of Literature

This research paper intends to discuss the problems relating to learning of students in primary
and secondary schools in India. It starts with the right to education which fulfils its sole
motive of providing the physical infrastructural necessity for children between the age of 6 to
14 and then, it moves to exploring the scope of right to learn to fit into Right to education to
make it more concrete and inclusive to the quality of education being provided in schools.
With the case study on Mission Buniyaad, it explores the possibilities of government
interventions which fulfills the right to learn to some extent.

It is no new thought in the 21st century that Education reduces poverty, decreases social
inequalities, empowers women and helps each individual in reaching their full potential. It is
said to bring economic returns to the country and helps society in bringing peace and
sustainable development to the foray. It is the ‘Key’ to achieve all other human rights as well.

The government’s policy framework for education has been limited to 4 A’s: Availability,
Accessibility, Acceptability and Adaptability. They take care of the availability to make sure
adequate material, classrooms, trained teachers and so on - so that a quality education is
available to every child. Through Accessibility, they make sure schools are within the reach
of students and suitable for disabled children. They affordable to all children and there is no
discrimination for caste, creed, gender, race or religion. Through acceptability, they make
sure that education is of a high quality and includes relevant information that is appropriate.
And lastly, they make sure that schools and its systems are suitable to the communities they
serve.

As J P Naik, a renowned educationist, put it, the challenge of Indian school education is best
described as an elusive triangle of equality, quality and quantity. A key shortcoming that has
been observed over the past many years is the absence of adequate number of people with
expertise in education.

A good amount of work has been done on the Right to Education, Right to Learn and the
interventions needed in the schooling system. A concise description of all the work that has
been done in the past which is relevant to the research done in this paper would be presented
in a manner which would help giving a direction to this paper and would also explain why
work in this field is so important.

The history of education in India has been traced by many researchers in order to understand
its chronological development over the years. Specific to India, education systems of varying
kinds have been in existence over the centuries. This includes the gurukul system, the
universities established by Buddhists, the madrassas of the Islamic establishment, community
schools and home based schooling amongst others. Within these, often the gurukul system
and the universities established by the Buddhists are generally represented as the prime
examples of achievements in the area of education by Indian society.

Anil Sadgopal has initiated a very grave inquiry onto the seemingly simple Right to
Education in his paper titled 'Right to Education Vs. Right to Education Act' by starting his
assessment with an "Overview of Denial: From British Raj to the modern Indian State".
According to him, "There is adequate ground for contending that the Fundamental Right to
education can be gained only through a publicly funded Common School System based on
Neighbourhood Schools as envisaged above. Resisting commoditization of education and its
tradable knowledge is integral to the agenda for moving towards this goal." (Sadgopal, RTE
Vs. RTE Act)

Bajpai, B.K. (2014) studied on the RTE norms and performance of elementary education to
assess the progress and implementation of RTE Act, 2009 for development elementary
education. The study found that development of elementary education is highly affected by
progress and implementation of the RTE Act, 2009.

Chandrappa, (2014) studied on „Right to Education Act-Elementary Education: Backbone of

the Education System‟ with the objective to find out the effectiveness of the RTE Act in the
elementary school education system. The study revealed that the awareness of the people in
this Act was very low and there is need of capacity development at various levels for
operationalized to this act. At the community level, SMCs and Panchayat Raj Institutions
(PRIs) need to be trained about their roles and responsibilities.

Deepthi, T. (2014) proposed to investigate the current status of the implementation of RTE,
Act, 2009 in terms of awareness, understanding of the provisions by the different
stakeholders and also the issues and challenges before the teacher to implement it. In order to
meet the challenges, the nation should come 47 together as a whole and work together to
overcome these challenges. There should be a great level of coordination among the different
agencies involved in this act.

Kumar, T.P. (2014) studied on the RTE Act among school teachers in Bangalore city and
found that the awareness on RTE, Act 2009 of male and female teachers are significant and
female teachers are more aware than male teachers concerning the implementation of the
RTE Act, 2009.

Lal, K. (2014) studied on „Awareness of the Right to Education Act among Teachers‟ with
the objective to compare awareness towards the RTE Act of male and female teachers of the
urban and rural area. The study found that in rural areas male teachers are aware of RTE Act
rather than female teachers and in urban area female teachers are aware of the RTE Act rather
than male teachers.

Niranjanaradhya, V. P. and Jha, A. (2013) study on Right to Education Act: miles to go. With
the objective to develop in an in-depth qualitative case study to evaluate the effectiveness of
the implementation of the RTE Act in the Panchayat. The study revealed that there are no
state authority has ever come to supervise the implementation of RTE, Act, 2009. in the
schools after the implementation of the act in Gram Panchayats of Ramanagar District,
Karnataka. The requisitions made by the SDMCs to the local self-government receive very
little or no attention. No teacher has ever undergone any intensive training programme
specifically under the RTE Act, 2009 that focuses in particular on improving the quality of
education

Debbarama, K. (2012) conducted a study on challenges in implementation of the RTE, Act,

2009. The study found that many private schools have opposed the reservation policy given
in the RTE Act, 2009 (25% seats for children from economically weaker sections must have
to reserve in private schools.

Dixon and Pauline (2012) conducted a study on the new Right to Education Act (RTE) comes
an exciting opportunity to change the way private unaided schools are regulated and gain
recognition in India. The task of the private unaided sector in India is decisive for attaining
“Education for All”.

A study conducted by Vyas, S. (2012) on awareness on Right to Education, Act, 2009 among
elementary school teachers in the National Capital region. The researcher was used sample of
160 elementary school teachers from Delhi and NCR. The researcher was also taken self-
made questionnaire including twenty multiple choice items. The study found that the level of
awareness within teachers included in this study is not up to the blotch, yet subsequent to
more than one year of implementation of this RTE, Act. The study found that government
teachers are relatively more conscious as measure up to private teachers.

This study conducted by Godbole (2011) on RTE where the researcher talked about that
education is a basic human right, without which potential for a civilized life and valuable
participation in society are less likely to be developed. Since the Right to Education Act has
provided us the tools to provide quality and equity in education for all our children. It is now
very important that we, the people of India, stick together hands to hands for ensuring the
implementation of this provision in its true courage.

Kumar (2011) conducted a study on role of School Manage Committees and mainly this
study showed that the SMCs will lead the awareness within the stakeholders and all the
important decisions was taken by the School Management Committees. This study observes
that through the SMCs the RTE act should be very effective and result slanting in sense of
successful education system.

Mishra, A. (2011) conducted a study on an understanding of the RTE Act, 2009 with unique
allusion to State of Odisha: problems and challenges with the objectives to examine the status
of implementation of RTE Act in 20 government schools operating within 10 km. the radius
of Bhubaneswar city. The study found that most of the parents are aware of the free education
provided to the pupils of schools basically elementary school. But the major problem is that
many of them are not aware of the reimbursement given to the pupils at school.

Shah, P. (2011) conducted a study on the RTE, Act: a critique. The objectives of this study is
to find out many good issues and negative aspects but taken as a whole highlights the
philosophy of implementation; awareness of society and enthusiasm of teachers. Researcher
emphasized that the teachers should be more accountable to broaden educational awareness.

A study conducted by Trivedi, A. (2011) on the Status of Implementation of the Right to

Education, Act, 2009 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. Researcher found that there is a lack of
awareness among teachers and parents about the true content of the act. Even many
functionaries mean it as RTI (Right to Information). In the state, local specific guidelines are
prepared but there is little awareness among stakeholders.

A study conducted by UNICEF and UNESCO (2011) on assessment survey evaluation

research centre. Research points out that the decisive challenges in rural Indian school
education. It brings with forth six major issues that are obstructing the teaching and learning
practices in rural schools in terms of age appropriate grade and grade suitable learning levels.
The study also highlighted that the textbooks having impractical prospects about what
children can do and learn throughout an academic session.

Mittal and Shah (2010) wrote on “Reservation in Private Schools under the Right to
Education Act: Model for Implementation” Section 12 of the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (the Act) has made it compulsory for every private unaided
school to admit at least 25% of its entry level class from children belonging to weaker and
disadvantaged groups. For this category of students, the state government will reimburse
schools an amount equal to either the fees charged by the school or the per child expenditure
in state schools, whichever is lower.
Rai and Rana(2010) conducted a study on RTE in India and researcher mentioned that the
government has taken a number of initiatives to understand its goal of achieving utmost
literacy in the State. But these norms and standards should be correctly executed and pursued
by all in order to make India a completely literate and developed State.

Reddy &Sinha (2010) studied on “School Dropouts or Push outs?”, and found the followings.
Overcoming Barriers for the Right to Education-Dropping out of school usually implies the
inability of children to continue in school for some reason. Most often the child, his/her
family circumstances or macroeconomic factors are considered to be responsible for them
dropping out. In perceiving it as such, the emphasis is on the inability of children to continue
in school.

Singh (2010) studied on “Right to Education and Right to Educate: A Study of the Impact of
Right to Education Act on Unrecognized Schools in Delhi.” The paper examined the status of
unrecognized schools after the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act (RTE Act). Field visits were conducted in recognized and
unrecognized schools in Shahadara to gather information about which of State norms and the
RTE norms could not be met.

Conducted study by Jain & Dholakia in the year 2009 on the feasibility of implementation of
RTE, Act, 2009. The researcher squabbles that even an allocation of six percent of the gross
domestic merchandise to the education budget would not be enough to funding the universal
school education in anticipation of the very far-flung future if the government school system
is used as the only device. The only one way to meet the RTE compulsion is to rely on
inexpensive private schools as a important appliance for the government education policy.

After mentioning the studies done on Right to Education and its awareness and features, it is
also important to mention the critical studies done upon the actual Situation after so many
years of its implementation and the real picture of learning among the primary and secondary
school students. Just enrolment and presence doesn't guarantee real learning. Do children
even know to read basic sentences by the time they reach 7th grade?

Natarasan, Era has posed a very interesting question, "Will RTE Survive?" through her
Book, 'Wings of Learning'. She has talked about the situation in the schools and being from
Tamil Nadu, she has added local questions as well.
'Quality Interventions in Elementary Schools' is a detailed report prepared by NCERT under
the Quality Monitoring programme in 100 clusters of the country. This report explains and
reports all the figures and facts about the progress made by the government schools with
respect to infrastructure, teachers, programmes, diets, etc.

Bordoloi, R. (2011) did a qualitative study , 'Challenges in Elementary Education in India:

Various Approaches' to understand what lies in the gap between the school and the students.

Urvashi Sahni presented a brief report 'Primary Education in India: Progress & Challenges'
for Brookings Institution for the second Modi-Obama Summit. This report tells us what needs
to be done by the government and how some strategic help from outside the country might
help as well.

'Diagnostic Analysis of Elementary Education Scheme in Rural Punjab' is a detailed report

prepared by Dr. Gursharan Kainth which was sponsored by NITI Aayog itself in 2016. This
report gives a descriptive insight into the real picture of education in rural Punjab. It can be
easily understood that this report sheds light over many dark questions haunting the
researchers in education division for a long time.

After reviewing all these papers, journal articles, reports, books, etc. regarding the Right to
Education: its awareness, implementations, problems, challenges and progress, it is
understandable that the recent progress of Mission Buniyaad in Delhi Schools haven't been
evaluated, mentioned or even recognised in the field of research. This paper would aim at
doing just that, to add qualitative progress to the previous work already done on Right to
Education while being relevant to the contemporary dialogue of development. Mapping of
actual learning outcomes is very important in order to move forward from the Right to
Education Act to the actual learned India.
Research Problem

Is it actually possible to just have a single standard for all the students? Does the
classification of students based on their merit affect the self-concept of the students
negatively even with beautiful nomenclature? What is the real picture out there, in the
schools? Is it possible to bridge the gap between instruction and learning with special focus
and approach for the students who need it the most? Above questions can be termed as being
too vague and abstract to be actually answered but the truth is that these need to be answered
or at the very least be attempted. The government and its initiative Mission Buniyaad might
be helpful in understanding these figures.

Research Objective

This paper attempts to understand how Mission Buniyaad has played a role in enhancing the
actual learning of students irrespective of the so called distinction of “bright’ and “weak”
students. It is an attempt to meet the heads of the schools, the teachers, the students and their
parents where the mission has been launched in order to have a better subjective
understanding so as to create an objective analysis of the growth. This is a qualitative study to
comprehend the role of teachers in adopting different techniques to make learning easy for
students with different aptitude.

Research Methodology

This paper would be a compilation of a precise qualitative and quantitative study of the
changes made by Mission Buniyaad in order to cater to the Right of Education and to move
forward to the Right to Learn. A survey with the teachers, students and their parents with
respect to the mission being launched in the school and its implementation in order to have
statistical patterns while interpreting data. Revisiting the education system since the ancient
times to the modern times in India to have a clear idea of how far we have come and where
do we come from. An investigation into the effects of this initiative for the all rounded
development of the students would be attempted as well. A detailed examination of the
challenges and the advantages that the country has regarding the elementary education is very
important.
Scope of the Study

This work looks forward to actual progress made in the learning outcomes because of mission
buniyaad and will create more awareness among the general public about the initiatives that
the government is takingto ensure proper learning. This paper aims to serve as a pamphlet for
the Right to Learn, so that proper help and support can be given to all students. The parents of
those students would also be motivated enoughnot to be worried about missing summer
vacations as their kids would be improving themselves.

Constraints

 The survey being aa quantitative method, can a qualitative analysis be done on its
basis?
 There are so many government schools in Delhi, and in turn all those schools have
millions of children. Would it be possible to customize the evaluation according to all
these differences?
 There hasn’t been any work done on Missioon Buniyaad itself, thus making it difficult
to procure evidence and material.

Time Frame of Study

The study will be done extensively in the Delhi Government schools over the period of two
months from January, 2019 to February, 2019. The data collected then will be processed over
time, to be compiled as an analysis and a study report.