HRD dubs opening helpline to monitor education quality wasteful expenditure

In a major setback to the initiatives to Prime Minister Narendra Modi aimed at improving the quality of education, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has rejected a proposal of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for opening a helpline to strengthen the monitoring mechanism of Right to Education Act (RTE).

The panel, exercising the norms of RTE, had sent a proposal for establishing helpline centre and asked for about Rs 4 crore for the year 2016-17, which has been rejected by HRD Ministry terming it as ‘wasteful expenditure’.

Commenting on the proposal, a senior HRD Ministry official said, “We have sent the proposal back to the panel as the body comes under the Women and Child Development Ministry and they have sought the fund under the Right to Education Act, which is not justified.”

“The WCD Ministry is running successfully a 1098 helpline dedicated for the welfare of children only. Also, starting a new helpline would take at least 2-3 more years. They have not given proper justification, so we have rejected their demands considering it as a wasteful expenditure,” the official said.

Surprisingly, the project which has been endorsed by several states has been put into the cold baggage by the HRD Ministry, whose mandate is to promote quality monitoring mechanism in education.

The NCPCR wants to establish the proposed education helpline-cum-solution platform to monitor day-to-day activities of education in about 14 lakh government schools in the country.

When contacted NCPCR member Priyank Kanoongo for his views on the whole issue, he said, “We have sent the proposal to HRD Ministry and it is still under consideration. Let’s wait for some time. 

I’m hopeful that some good news would definitely come as it’s about protecting the rights of children.”