(Author’s Note: This mini-series of four parts is intended to be the college debaters’ view of the two new Laws introduced by the Government, namely the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act and the Women’s Reservation Bill. Parts 1 and 2 will deal with the former, while Parts 3 and 4 will focus on the latter.)

“The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act” – (I)

India takes one more step towards fulfilling its own Indian Dream by passing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill in August 2009. The passing of this Bill was one of the flagship programmes in the 100-day agenda of the UPA government. The Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Mr Kapil Sibal described this as “harbinger of a new era”. “We as a nation cannot afford our children not going to schools," he further asserted. Definitely, 62 years after Independence, the Bill came in as a welcome change in the legislation of India.

Notwithstanding, one tends to complain about the long time it took for our Legislators to actually muster courage to put in this basic moral responsibility as an obligatory duty of the Government. The concept is not one which originated in the new millennium. It has been around from Day One of modern Indian Legislation: the drafters of the Constitution of India debated the topic extensively, only to put it down as a non-obligatory duty of the Government, but they left space for future legislators to introduce proper amendments of the Articles dealing with this section. The concept has been bouncing around in the Parliament House for over six decades, usually rejected on basis of budgetary constraints. 86th Amendment Act (2002) via Article 21A (Part III), which sought to make free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for all children in the age group 6-14 years, was the immediate precursor of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009. It was turned down by the Finance Committee and Planning Commission citing the lack of funds, which is unreasonable since the budget for the bill was estimated to be only Rs 436,000 cr. But the present Bill (the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009) enjoys full support from more than two-thirds of the Members of Houses of Parliament and, therefore, received a smooth walkthrough. Finally, sixteen years after the Supreme Court ruled that elementary education should be made a fundamental right, the bouncing ball was led through all the gold hoops to its proper destination.

The college debater’s analysis of this Act is what will be presented in this instance of the series and the next. The present instance will try to provide a general overview of the Bill and its various constructives. The next instance will be an analysis of the various areas of the Bill that need improvement. The Bill enjoys the reputation of being morally and practically right and hence leaves little space for the college debater to challenge its motives. The only debate about this Bill lies in the model presented by the Government. The college debater is burdened with the duty to find lacunae in the Bill, comment on them and suggest appropriate additions or changes to the Bill. To begin with let us have an overview of the Bill. The salient features of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill are enumerated.

Rights of children

·        All children between the age of 6 and 14 years have the right to be provided with free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school. The definition of “neighbourhood schools” has been left to the respective state governments.

·        Out-of-school children have to be admitted to a class appropriate to their age, with special training to help them. Elementary education will remain free even after child completes 14 years.

·        The child enjoys the right to transfer to any school except unaided schools and other schools notified by the appropriate government.

        Children will not be held back, expelled, or required to pass through a board examination until Class 8.

        Duties of the state

Within three years of the commencement of the Act, the state government is expected to do the following:

·       Establish a school in every neighbourhood;

·       Design curriculum framework;

·       Enforce teacher standards, including minimum qualifications;

·       Maintain appropriate pupil-teacher ratio in each school;

·       Teachers are not to be deployed for non-teaching duties, except census, disaster relief, and elections;

·       Maintain records of all children up to 14 years of age

Finances

The funding formula is to be determined from time to time by the Central and State Governments.

Besides reimbursements for unaided schools, resources need to be provided for school infrastructure, teacher training, additional teachers etc.

Admission

No capitation fee is to be charged by schools at the time of admission.

The Bill also prohibits subjecting children and their parents or guardians to a screening procedure.

Regulation

·      All schools have to form a School Management Committee (SMC), comprising of parents, guardians, and elected representatives, with 50 per cent seats in it reserved for women. The SMC will monitor the working of the school, prepare a development plan, and monitor fund utilisation.

·      At the centre and state level, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights will be responsible for inquiry into complaints under the Bill.

·       A National Advisory Council at the centre and State Advisory Council at the state , comprising experts in elementary education and child development, will advise the government on the implementation of the Bill

Duties of the school & teacher

The duty of schools under the Act depends on the school’s funding.

·       Government schools are to provide free education to all,

·       Aided schools provide free education proportionate to their funding, subject to a minimum of 25 percent.

·       All unaided schools are to provide free education to 25 per cent of students from disadvantaged groups.

Fee will be reimbursed by the State Government to these schools.

Other duties include

·      School are under obligation to maintain minimum standards on number of teachers, school building, and number of working days, per week working hours, library, and sports & games equipment, failing which the accreditation and recognition to the school will be withdrawn.

·      Teachers are obligated to obtain proper educational degree for continuing their practice, within three years of commencement of the Act, failing which they are liable to punishment from Law.

·      No child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment by teachers/officials.

It is understandable that these few points listed above are not free from ambiguity. The full draft of the Bill can be downloaded from the following two links.

Link 1

Link 2

Even a cursory glance at the framework of this Bill will confirm that the Act comes along as a very strong step on the part of the Dr Manmohan Singh led UPA Government. It not only establishes their will to do what is right, it also keeps the entire country interested in the legislative process and its follow up. Planned to be effective from the 1^st of April, 2010, the Act will set a new milestone in the history of Indian Legislation. Needless to mention, this Act may not receive a standing ovation from all sections of present day India. The Bill states clearly that the Appropriate Government reserves the right to derecognise schools which do not meet the minimum standards set, within a stipulated time frame. The Act also puts the jobs of teachers in jeopardy. Derecognising a school or sacking of a teacher is sure to create unrest, both before and after the actual act. But this is just an everyday business for the Government to handle. Problems with more gravity loom before the Government today. It is not going to be a fairy tale ride for them. We will focus on the various areas where there is room for improvement in the next instance of this series.

(Author’s Note: Comments on the Constructives of the Bill are welcome. A critical assessment of the Constructives will be taken in the next instance, to be published soon. Attempts will be made to clarify any points of interest raised by the readers.)

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Right to Education
written by idiott, March 08, 2010

Let me start with the critical analysis of this particular Bill. Right to education bill is not such a great milestone because it is the logical deduction of the fundamental right 21-A of right to free and compulsory education for children between the age group 6-14. The RTE(right to education)2009 only provides the guidelines how this fundamental right can be availed.
Now let's move to the critical perspective of the fundamental right itself.
1. This comes under the fundamental right of freedom. Now question arises is education is necessary for livelihood? May be not. but purists will say Right to freedom also says right to live with dignity. To live with dignity and achieve excellence of the human life education is necessary. pretty well!! Long back there was a great socio-psychologist, Abraham Maslow, who said there is prepotency of needs. Some needs are to be filled first than other. If we bring forth his views onto it, then right to live is a more urgent need than right to live with dignity. Today,with extreme poverty and accute hunger has put many of indian states in the envious category of the countries like Gabon, Ethiopia and Congo in terms of hunger. We have not helped our human resources meet this need how can we proceed for the next higher need. So i beg to differ with the author that this bill is an old concept. It is very very futuristic and idealistic.
2. Secondly, how this right to be exercised? Ok the RTE2009 bill enumerates the guideline. Very nice!! but violation of this right, how to re redressed. violation of fundamental right is a very severe crime. Now what writ can be issued by high court and to whom? Will the writ be issued towards the government to drag a child into school when his parents want him to make bangles? Now, when fundamental right is violated the victim knocks the door of supreme court. As this right applies to 6-14 year children, are they supposed to go to court? Will their parents ever go to court as they will be charged as the perpetors. So finally it will become the favorite topic of PILs and frivioulous NGOs will thrive on filing umpteen number or PILs and not for nothing.
So this fundamental right according to my view in inherently flawed if it is made workable in the present situation. Thats why I again hold my ground that it is a futuristic concept.
A better solution might have been an enforceable obligation on the part of parents to send their children to home, one enforceable obligation to stop child labor and one enforceable executive resolution to the district executive to enroll every person in the school. The fundamental right has not made the above enforceable characters and the stake holders not exclusive, rather it says it is the right of the child? As long as the grievance redressal mechanism is not put in properly what benefit in the right. Gunnar Myrdal has correctly remarked, soft state is the state which requires extraordinary little of its citizens, state has extraordinarily little obligations towards the citizen and even if those obligations do exist they are not enforced in the manner they should have been. And does the author not think we are a soft state and this RTE 2009 is not going change our stance too much.
Now so what is the solution forward? Creating awareness is necessity. We dont need people who are educated by compulsion and are rot-educated like me. We need people with a knack towards excellence. Sanskrit sloka says " Sa VIdya ja Bimuktyae" Let education will be an enlightening experience. let the parents understand that, let us make them aware first, let us remove poverty and hunger at the baseline, and we don't have to need legislation to drag children to school. They will come on their won with their mommy, packing their school bags and tiffin boxes each morning.

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written by Domarp, March 09, 2010

Right to Education is an momentous effort as an education reform to let the education percolate to the most needy and people who are bereft of it..though the efficacy of law has prepotency over the participation of state and central government since education is mentioned in the concurrent list...though it has garnered criticism about the ways and means through government intends to bring this reform,however the fact is that law has to be in place and its effectiveness can be seen only in the long run..this law is not a novel idea in fact many developed countries like United States provides free and compulsory education to all till matriculation..lets come and support it..in the due process there are bound to be failures and adversities but then this is how things work...a failure would entail a reform to correct the follies and thus new processes and laws come in place(Not always though )

@Idiot: I agree to your points but then looking at the brighter side and as an optimist the positives are far more than negatives...problems like hunger and employment has close resemblance with education...as an educated person is more likely to live a better life as his/her life chances increases.

@Misra: Thanks for the wonderful insight through the article.

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written by Yashu Rustagi, March 31, 2010

@idiott : Poverty and illiteracy are in a sense causative factors for each others. So, it seems right to adopt a multi pronged approach to deal with them. There has been some movement in the direction of assessment of the poverty line by the planning commission, tendulkar committee etc and an appraisal of the dysfunctional PDS system by the wadhwa committee, although I agree that some firm, quick and effective steps need to be taken on the ground for to tackle the problem. But, in a democratic society we value consensus and the multitudinous public opinion. So, i guess, we need to wait on that count as well as the political will of our leaders.

Now coming to the question of why it has been instituted as one of the fundamental rights. It is indeed fundamental as a corollary to the right to life, as stated by you. And, as you rightly mentioned, while the aggrieved person or his family might not approach the courts, and we run into the danger of clogging further the already jammed wheels of justice. Yet, ostensibly, for any obligatory function of the government, this stands as one of the best recourses because it lets the aggrieved party march straight to the supreme/high court for redress of his grievances. A complaint could be lodged with the NCPR/ at the state level, corresponding state commission or such other authority as prescribed by the state with the mandate to entertain complains on this behalf. One of the recourses after duly investigating the case, could be for the relevant commission to approach the SC/HC for appropriate direction. Also, NCPCR is to take suo motu cognizance of any violations of child rights.

Awareness : It is but a small step in the 'right' direction. Let us do our bit as well in spreading the awareness and bring constructive criticism to the fore for the betterment of the lives around us.


@ Misra : An article sure to spur a debate of sorts. Kudos

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written by Yashu Rustagi, March 31, 2010

@ idiott :

May I add that, in my knowledge, executive resolutions :
1. would not be justiciable in the courts.
2. it might be difficult to make the entire exercise transparent to the ordinary citizen with no appropriate redress machinery as well.
3. Such a fundamental change cannot be left to the mercy of executive resolutions. Laws have their own sanctity.
4. Do we propose to override the legitimacy of the Parliament. Are we favouring exec resolutions over laws for such important issues concerning ordinary citizens? We are sure to run into danger some time soon, in that case.

In case u feel, I messed up somewhere, let me know...

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written by abacus mental math, May 12, 2010

A fantastic presentation. Very open and informative.You have beautifully presented your thought in this blog post

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