New Delhi: April 1, 2010 would be the beginning of a historic change with the advent of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, which will enable every child with a right that will be legal by then, to free elementary education of equitable quality.

With the countdown trickling down every day the date for its implementation nears as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal seeks the support of the states by asking the chief ministers to cooperate in universalizing the elementary education.

Sibal has decided to launch the RTE from the capital itself instead of some deprived area.

He has sought help from the CMs in his letter, which talks of six suggestions.

Ensuring availability of neighbourhood schools, he has asked the states to initiate social mapping exercises. It is in this regard that 'geospatial mapping' to demarcate the catchment areas of the neighbourhood schools has been asked by the minister to all the CMs.

The school secretary Anshu Vaish for its better implementation has also sent separate letters to state officials.

Special training for the school drop outs has also been mulled by the minister as he has asked all the CMs to chalk out special programmes so that they can also be included under the umbrella of age- appropriate class.

Sibal has also asked the states to maintain the teacher student ratio as 1:30 by asking them to maintain a re-deployment system for teachers wherein they would be addressing the imbalance.

The states have also been asked to keep in mind the domestic responsibilities of woman teachers.

Stressing on the need to implement the RTE Act, Sibal emphasized upon the importance of teachers and has asked the states to fill the vacancies as soon as possible.

"Even if economic issues pose a hurdle in the fresh recruitment it may all be lifted. This will encourage that the RTE act mandate has been fulfilled with the required teacher-pupil ratio," said the HRD minister in his letter to the CMs.

Continuing with his plans, Sibal stated that since training of untrained teachers is compulsory according to the mandates of the RTE Act, so the states should prepare a plan which should smoothen the progress.