39 Children’s Right to Education (RTE)

Jhuma Sen

epgp books

 

Introduction:

The Indian Constitution through the Eighty- Sixth Amendment Act, 2002 had inserted a new article, Article 21- A which promises to provide free and compulsory education for all the children who are between the age group of six to fourteen, this is guaranteed as a Fundamental Right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 is the consequential legislation which clearly lays down that every child of the mentioned age group should have and receive a full time elementary education which should meet and be equal to that of the formal training that is received in school and it should also meet up with the necessary educational standards.

Article 21 – A had come into force along with the RTE Act on the 1st of April, 2010. Through this act there is a legal obligation on the Central as well as the State Government who needs to assure that this Fundamental Right is implemented as it is mentioned under Article 21 A and the RTE Act. India through this amendment has become amongst one of those 135 countries which has made education as a Fundamental Right for every children of a certain age group.

Learning Outcomes:

After completing this chapter, students should know and understand:

  • Origins of the Right to Education
  • The Key Features and Elements of Right to Education Act and Article 21-A,
  • Right to education provided in India it’s status in International Law,
  • Few other elements.

Origins of the Right to Education:

The journey to procure free and compulsory education for children was not an easy journey. Initially when the Indian Constitution had come into force it had Article 45 as a directive principle that had promised free and compulsory education for all the children till they attain an age of 14 years. The state was held responsible to implement the promise made by the constitution for free and compulsory education which was not done. The issue of Right to free and compulsory had been debated over a good period of time by the drafters of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly. In 1947 the ways and means committee had been set up to understand and get some methods in order to achieve elementary education within ten years at lower costs. Initially the committee had placed the right to education under Fundamental Rights, under Clause – 23. In 1947 the Advisory committee of the Constituent Assembly had rejected the idea of introducing free and compulsory as a Fundamental Right, one of the major reasons of doing so was cost.

In 1950 finally, Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy had given way for introducing Free and Compulsory education to children until they attain the age of fourteen. This was then updated with introducing the Right to free and compulsory education under Article 21- A, which is as follows “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the state may, by law, determine.” This was introduced after 60 years of India becoming a free country.

The first ever made recommendation after the constitution coming into force for introducing Right to Education as a Fundamental Right was made in 1990 by the Acharya Ramamurti Committee. After which there were many political changes that had actually influenced the Right to Education. The recommendation was made by the committee though it had not been implanted or put in action immediately.

The Supreme Court in 1992 through the Judgment of Mohini Jain Vs. State Of Karnataka had held that Right to Education is associated with the Fundamental Rights of every citizen. It is an expression for all the other rights which must be enforced through courts as they are there basic right for a dignified life. It had been said that Right to Education is nothing but a sub head of right to live with dignity as promised through Right to Life cannot be assured unless it has the company of Right to Education. Further this judgment had been analyzed by the Supreme Court in the case of J P Unnikrishnan vs. State of Andhra Pradesh, 1993. It was held that even though Right to Education is not talked about as a Fundamental Right but there are several other articles that do talk about the same. Articles like 41, 45 and 46 all talk about right to education in some sense or the other. These three Articles are inserted in the Constitution in order to achieve the said goals. Thus, right to education in context as mentioned under Article 45 and 41 means that Firstly every child or citizen of India has a right to free education till he/she attains an age of fourteen years and secondly after a child or citizen completes the age of 14 years, his right to education is dependent completely on the financial capacity of the state.

After the Unnikrishnan judgment there were several Public Interest Litigation petitions that had been filed in various High Courts which actually brought about pressure in the parliament after which a proposal had been for a constitutional amendment to insert right to education as a part of the Fundamental Right. The constitution through the 83rd Amendment Bill which had been produced in Rajya Sabha in July 1997, this bill had proposed for making Right to Education a part of the Fundamental Rights by introducing Article 21- A further to remove Article 45. This proposal took several years to actually come into force because the period between 1997 and 2001 there were change in governments which had several political issues that did not allow the amendment to come into force. The 83rd bill in 2001 was renumbered as the 93rd bill and Article 45 was to be deleted completely from the Constitution. The bill was passed in 2002 as the 86th Amendment Act and finally a Provision for Free and Compulsory Education was provided as a Fundamental Right. This then led to introducing ‘Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education’ was drafted in 2005 and became an Act in 2009, whereas it came into force on 1st April, 2010.

The Key Features and Elements of Right to Education Act and Article 21- A:

  1. It imposes a liability and responsibility on the government to provide free and compulsory education till elementary education/ till the child attains the age of fourteen in a school. The act gives the privilege to all children to get education till minimum the elementary level without charging any kind of fee or charge, nor expects the child to procure any expense. It further clarifies that ‘compulsory education’ is an obligation of the respected government to provide and let every child to avail education.
  2. There are provisions that are made to keep reserve 25% of seats in private schools for the weaker and the disadvantaged section of the society which would be sponsored by the government. The government would reimburse all the expenses that are incurred by schools. There should not be no admission fee nor should there be any form of interview taken of the child or the parent as a screening process.
  3. Through this act there are is a clear prohibition towards any form of physical or mental torture towards the child.
  4. There needs to be availability of such schools and there needs to be establishment especially the upper primary schools in areas where the provisions are not existing.
  5. There are minimum qualification that are laid down In respect to the appointment of the teachers in the school.
  6. The act provides easy accessibility for children, like admitting all those children who are above the age of six, who earlier has never been enrolled in any kind of school, that child should be enrolled in the class which is for their age and should be provided special training.
  7. There are certain duties of the teachers like:
    • They have to maintain discipline in the form of regularity and punctuality.
    • To finish the course in the allotted time period.
  8. In schools where there are no scope to complete elementary education, the child may have the right to take a transfer to any other school, with exceptions.
  9. There are certain liabilities on the Central Government like:
    • To finalize the national course structure with the help of academic authority.
    • To have a standardized standards for teachers.
    • The Central Government shall make an estimate or the budget that would be sufficient to execute the provisions of the act.
  10. There are several responsibilities that are laid down upon the local authorities as well like: · Children who belong to the weaker and the disadvantaged section of the society are not discriminated against others on any grounds are not barred to avail free education up to elementary level.
    • Provide training facility for the teachers.
    • The authorities need to ensure that those parents who are migrants, their children are enrolled in a school.
  11. The academic calendar needs to b provided by the local authorities.
  12. Responsibilities that are laid upon the teachers and the schools that are like
    • The school might require the proof of age for the admission process.
    • There cannot be any denial of admission during the commencement of the academic year or within the period of time as it may be the extended period.
    • Every school has to be established with a certificate of recognition.
    • Every school needs to have a minimum qualification that would be laid down by the academic authority for the teachers. This minimum requirement should be authorized by the central government and should be followed while appointing the teachers.

These are those few major, important and the most relevant portion of the Right to Education Act. These provisions are something that needs to be kept in mind while providing free and compulsory education to children.

Right to education provided in India it’s status in International Law:

At international level there are several convention and reports that are of the United Nations that lay importance to the Fundamental Right to Education. This right for education is codified under the following:

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)3 ,
  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
  • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),
  • the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

The UNESCO has placed Right to Education at the top of its list and it is one of the most important agenda’s. It is a very integral part of UNESCO’s constitutional mandate.

At the international standards the ICESCR allocates two articles those are article 13 and 14. Article 13 deals in a very comprise way about the right to education as a human rights law. There are four essential features that are set out for the primary schools which need to be followed:

Availability: There should be enough number of schools that can provide education in a particular jurisdiction. There are several requirement that deal with the sanitation requirements like sanitation facility for both the sexes, trained teachers with decent salaries, trained teachers. There should be basic infrastructure facilities like computer labs, library.

Comparing the same with the rules and the guidelines that are laid down under the RTE Act,

  • There should be free and compulsory education that needs to be provided to each and every child that age from 6 to 14.
  • No child shall have to pay any form of fee in order to receive education in any school at elementary level.
  • There has to be new schools that should be established in areas or in neighborhoods where no such provision is available.
  • There are minimum qualification requirements for the school teachers for them to be eligible to be appointed.

Accessibility: The educational facility should be available to each and every student and there should not be any discrimination on any grounds. Education should be available to all and especially to all those who are the backward or the vulnerable section of the society.

Comparing the same with the rules and the guidelines that are laid down under the RTE Act,

The act clearly lays down that no student should actually be discriminated on any grounds and further that the weaker section of the society should get this facility easily.

Acceptability: the teaching material and the manuals for all the courses should be well accepted by the students.

Comparing the same with the rules and the guidelines that are laid down under the RTE Act,

  • The central government has to finalize the manuals for the courses which would be used nationwide

Adaptability: the education system should be flexible and should be in a way that it can evolve with the changing society.

These were the certain key important features that can be looked upon and can be compared to that of the international standards. If looked upon with a layman’s eyes the RTE Act of India mainly follows all the criteria and the expectations that the international associations expect the states to follow.

Other Elements:

  • Role of parents and the community to ensure RTE: The RTE Act, 2009 requires that all the schools should have School Management Committees which would include parents, local authorities, guardians and this committee shall look into matters that would be related to government grants for the purpose of free education and the environment of the school.
  • RTE promotes that the schools should be children friendly: every schools should have proper well trained teachers along with certain basic infrastructure. It requires children to receive decent attention from the teachers therefore it needs that for every sixty students there should be two well trained teachers.
  • Procedures and available mechanism that are available if RTE is violated: The National Commission for the Protection of Child rights shall look into the safeguards which could be provided under RTE. There should be a written grievance that needs to be submitted to the local authority. There would be committees like the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights or Right to Education Protection Authority that would regulate the matters. All the appeals would be decided by these bodies,

Challenges faced for providing free elementary education in India:

Finance: After the RTE coming into force there were several time bounds in relation to matters to like the infrastructure. There are a lot of expenses that are related to make sure that the RTE Act is followed in the prescribed manner.

Lack of basic infrastructure: The RTE Act, requires that the following infrastructure facilities need to be made available to children enrolled in the school by the relevant authorities within a period of three years. The school buildings should have several amenities like an office for the head master and a separate room for teachers. There requires that for the children there are available playgrounds and labs along with library. Therefore in context with the infrastructure facilities there needs to be a lot of efforts that needs to be put forward in order to meet up with all the requirements of the RTE Act.

Lack of Trained teachers: there is very high weigh given to having teachers who are well trained so that the basic education at the elementary level that is received by the children have good standards. The current situation is such that amongst every one out of five teachers do not meet up with the minimum qualification requirement. This clearly shows that the RTE Act even after laying down the guidelines do not have eligible teachers and thus the Act seems to lose importance.

Conclusion:

Through this module every reader and student should have a very basic and sufficient knowledge about Right to Education and the Act. In the sixty years of India’s independence it can be acknowledged and appreciated that the governments of the country has actually put in efforts to develop the education standards in the country. It is rightly said that even though the law is in place, it is the implementation that is equally important with good law. In the laws related to RTE it can be said that the guidelines and the rules laid down in the act pro providing education. The problem lies in the implementation which means that providing all the facilities and the other essential requirements that every child would need studying in an elementary school.

The RTE Act has several times been criticized by various people including few of the really great economists. The Act seems to focus mainly on the inputs and there is no output thought in the act. It is not disputed that the act does focus on the key features of what a school should and should not have. Like having good teachers and better facilities, but what has been forgotten here is that the Act has raised estimated inputs that may not have clear outputs because of several backdrops.

The act can be implemented well over a long period of time; it is true that the time period provided for the implementation is quite short. There needs to be the availability of funds and several other implementation procedures that would help the act to show outputs.

you can view video on Children’s Right to Education (RTE)

Reference

  • http://nhrc.nic.in/documents/Publications/NHRC-Book-Disability.pdf
  • http://centralsquarefoundation.org/
  • http://rwi.lu.se/app/uploads/2012/04/Right-to-Education-Indian-and-International-Practices-Manoj.pdf
  • http://epao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=education.Human_Rights_Legal.Human_Rights_ and_Right_to_Education_A_Fundamental_Right_By_Gaikhamsin_Riamei
  • http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol19-issue6/Version-5/G019654654.pdf
  • http://nhrc.nic.in/Documents/Publications/ModuleonHR.pdf