Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, education for children for 6 to 14 years of age or up to Class 8 has been made free by the government. In recent decades India has made significant progress on access to schooling and enrollment rates in primary education but, dropout rates and low levels of learning remain challenges for the state and central governments. Primary school enrollment in India has been a success story, largely due to various programs and drives to increase enrollment even in remote areas. The RTE Act guarantees a quality education to a wider range of students than ever before. However, failure to meet the challenges in implementing and monitoring high standards in teaching and learning outcomes across regional, cultural and socioeconomic subsets keeps  India far  from  achieving this goal. Read more…