Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 200

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008

John Lubbock:         
The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.

Elbert Hubbard :- A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life.

©  Introduction:  Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008

—  The universal free and compulsory education should have become a reality in India by 1960.  Article 45 of the Indian Constitution before amendment of 2002 said: The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. But that Constitutional obligation was time and again deferred- first  to 1970 and then to 1980,1990 and 2000 and so on. Though Government of India has taken several steps to improvement the quality of education and make children back to school by introducing various schemes like mid-day meal, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and several states have enacted legislation the Kerala Education Act 1959, the Punjab Primary Education Act 1960, the Gujarat Compulsory Primary Education Act 1961 etc. but still the object was not achieved. Now the parliament have passed the bill on fundamental right to free and compulsory education for the children on 20July,2009 and this bill has been sent to president for his assent. This initiative has brought a ray of hope to millions of children  in the age group of 6-14 years, who are either school drop  outs or are not enrolled at all.

©  What is the bill about?

©  Every child between the age of 6 to 14 years has the right to free and compulsory education. This is stated as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act added Article 21A. The right to education bill seeks to give effect to this amendment.(Section 3)

©  The government schools shall provide free education to all the children and the schools will be managed by school management committees (SMC).(Section 21)

©   Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee.

©  The National Commission for Elementary Education shall be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education including quality.

©  Mandates that no child in the age group 6-14 shall be employed.

©  No child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education. No child shall be subject to physical punishment or mental harassment.

©  To ensure the availability of a neighbourhood school for providing free and compulsory education for every child within a period or three years from commencement of this Act.

©  To ensure that children in schools receive education (a) of equitable quality, and (b) conforming to values enshrined in the Constitution.

©  After the commencement of this Act, only such persons as possess the qualifications prescribed under The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Act shall be appointed as teacher. The Bill requires all schools to comply with pupil-teacher ratio norms.

©  The bill seeks to do away with the practice of schools taking capitation fees before admission and subjecting the child or parents to any screening procedure. (Section 13)

©  The bill also seeks to ban private tuition by teachers. (Section 28) Hence helps in maintaining equality.

©  The bill said it shall be the duty of every parent or guardian to admit the child to a neighbourhood school for elementary education and added that no child should be denied admission for lack of age proof (Section 6 & 14).

©  Financial burden will be shared between state and central government.

      Lacunas in the Bill

Ø  It is limited to 8th Standard only, which means exclusion of children in the age groups of 1-6 and 14-18 years from their Right to Education. Hence Bill is depriving poor children from the opportunity and eligibility for technical education and higher education. However, in the Unnikrishnan Judgment (1993), the Supreme Court of India gave the clear  verdict that education is a fundamental right for all children up to 14 years.

Ø  The Bill further limits the role of the government to ensure that there is one school in each neighbourhood area and shifts the responsibility of bringing children to those schools onto the parents.  

Ø  In the schedule of the Bill detailing norms and standards for a school, norms which all schools must follow for installing teaching, learning equipment, library, play material, games and sports equipment are not prescribed.                 

Ø  This Bill does not ensure about the quality of education. It does not specify the financial allocation to impart free and compulsory education to all the children in the age group between 6-14 years.

Ø  It provides for government to reimburse only tuition expenses of poor children enrolled in private schools. There is no provision for reimbursement of other fees (eg. art and craft, sports, excursion fees, etc), which are levied by most private schools.

Ø  The bill is silent on the facilities needed to enable children with disabilities to attend school (such as ramps, Braille readers, etc). In this Bill, ‘disability’ has the meaning assigned by the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, which does not include such other disabilities as defined by the National Trust Act, 1999 (autism and cerebral palsy). 

Ø  The Bill discriminates against government school children as their teachers will still be deployed for census, elections and disaster relief duties apart from being assigned tasks other than teaching.(Section 27)

Ø   Does not guarantee child’s mother tongue as medium of education, even at the primary stage (for the children of linguistic minority group). Hence violating Article 350.

Ø  It does not adequately address the issue of child labour. Bill ignores the reality of majority of poor children who are employed in agriculture and who bear the burden of housework and sibling care. 

©  Conclusion

©  The fundamental right to education, like other fundamental rights, gives a very tall order to the State and the society.  In order to be entitled to global recognition as civilized, democratic and a developed constituent unit of global society, a polity must have educated and enlightened citizens. This enactment can prove to be the effective step towards achieving the goal laid down by the constitution framers provided these lacunas should be considered and removed.

©  Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru saying,

“Children were like the buds in a garden. They should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they were future of the nation and the citizen of tomorrow.”