A Project Report on:-

Right to Education (Article 21A)

Assigned by- Ms. Prachi Rashmi Prepared by- Aakash Khatri Course: BA.LLB (H), 2nd Year, Section A Enrollment Number: A3211111046

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many friends and teachers. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to Ms. Vijayshree for her guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for her support in completing the project. I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents & their kind co-operation and encouragement which helped me in the completion of this project. My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleagues and the social media in developing the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

INTRODUCTION

The right to education is a universal entitlement to education, a right that is recognized as a human right. According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights the right to education includes the right to free, compulsory primary education for all, an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all, in particular by the progressive introduction of free secondary education, as well as an obligation to develop equitable access to higher education, ideally by the progressive introduction of free higher education.The right to education also includes a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. In addition to these access to education provisions, the right to education encompasses the obligation to rule out discrimination at all levels of the educational system, to set minimum standards and to improve quality of education The Indian Constitution is a social document and the supreme law of the land. The founding fathers of the Constitution have incorporated a well-designed constitutional manifesto under Part-IV of the Constitution to achieve socio-economic Justice. The Directive Principles of State Policy is not a catalogue but principles of good governance. It imposes certain obligations on the State to take affirmative action to establish a welfare State. These principles give directions to the functionaries of the State, the manner in which the Constitutional vision has to be achieved. One of the important directives is the duty of the

State to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. Education is the primary vehicle for human, economic and social development, profiting both the individual and society. It is very difficult for individuals to exercise their civil, political, economic and social rights unless they receive the basic education. The Supreme Court inMohini Jain and Unnikrishnan cases recognized the right to education is an implied fundamental right. According to the court, the education has proximate relationship with life, protection of environment, eradication of untouchability, child prostitution and other related rights. The National Commission on review of the working of the Constitution has also endorsed the similar view. As a result the parliament inserted Article 21-A to the Constitution by the 86th Constitutional amendment in 2002. This amendment also introduced new fundamental duty on parents to provide education to their children under Article 51-A to take affirmative action to full-fill the Constitutional mandate, the Parliament passed the Right to Education Act, 2009 w.e.f. April 1st 2010. The Act deals with various facets like appointment of teachers, standards, curriculum, infrastructure, community participation and responsibility of the State to provide primary education etc.

Why A Right To Education?

 Right to Education linked to a fundamental debate at the time of writing the Constitution Related to governance itself, universal adult franchise or not whether to include

Opponents argued that providing a right to vote to all, when most were illiterate, would negate democracy Art 45 introduced as a compromise 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 fourteen years (emphasis added) Only Directive Principle with a time frame, indicating that our leaders were not prepared to give more than ten years to establish democracy on the bedrock of universal education

However:-

 The time frame of ten years was never respected Government and the bureaucracy concluded that adequate financial resources were not available Number of illiterates in the country rose from 294.2 million in 1951, to 325.5 million in 1961

BACKGROUND OF THE ACT:In 1950, India made a Constitutional commitment to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14, by adding this provision in article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy. With the Constitution (Eighty-Sixth) Amendment Act on 12th December 2002, Article 21A was amended in order to introduce Right to Education as a fundamental right. The was introduced to give effect to the Constitution (Eighty-Sixth) Amendment Act. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act finally came into force on 1st April 2010. With the implementation of this Act, it is expected that issues of school drop out, out-of-school children, quality of education and availability of trained teachers will be addressed in the short to medium term plans.

Present Act has its history in the drafting of the Indian constitution at the time of Independence but are more specifically to the Constitutional Amendment that included

the Article 21A in the Indian constitution making Education a fundamental Right. This amendment, however, specified the need for a legislation to describe the mode of implementation of the same which necessitated the drafting of a separate Education Bill. A rough draft of the bill was composed in year 2005. It received much opposition due to its mandatory provision to provide 25% reservation for disadvantaged children in private schools. The sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education which prepared the draft Bill held this provision as a significant prerequisite for creating a democratic and egalitarian society. Indian Law commission had initially proposed 50% reservation for disadvantaged students in private schools. The bill was approved by the cabinet on 2 July 2009. Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 20 July 2009 and the Lok Sabha on 4 August 2009. It received Presidential assent and was notified as law on 26 August 2009 as The Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The law came into effect in the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1 April 2010, the first time in the history of India a law was brought into force by a speech by the Prime Minister. In his speech, Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India stated that, "We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education. An education that enables them to acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to become responsible and active citizens of India.

MAJOR PROVISIONS OF THE ACT

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)- External website that opens in a new window has been designated as the agency to monitor provisions of the Act. Main provisions of the Act:

Every child between the ages of six to fourteen years shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school, till completion of elementary education No child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted to any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age. The appropriate government and local authority shall establish a school, if it is not established, within the given area in a period of three years from the commencement of this Act. The Central and the State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

As per the provision of the Act, the Central Government has authorised the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT)- External website that opens in a new window as the academic authority to lay down the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education and develop a framework of national curriculum. This Act is an essential step towards improving each child's accessibility to secondary- External website that opens in a new window and higher education. The Act also contains specific provisions for disadvantaged groups, such as child labourers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economic, geographical, linguistic, gender or any such factor.

PRECDENTS

It has been pointed out that the RTE act is not new. Universal adult franchise in the act was opposed since most of the population was illiterate. Article 45 in the Constitution of India was set up as an act: 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 fourteen years. As that deadline was about to be passed many decades ago, the education minister at the time, M C Chagla, memorably said: Our Constitution fathers did not intend that we just set up hovels, put students there, give untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds, and say, we have complied with Article 45 and primary education is expanding... They meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14 M.C. Chagla, 1964 In the 1990s, the World Bank funded a number of measures to set up schools within easy reach of rural communities. This effort was consolidated in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan model in the 1990s. RTE takes the process further, and makes the enrollment of children in schools a state prerogative.

Concern of Quality Education

One of the primary objectives of Right of Children Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is improving quality education. The quality of elementary education, particularly in government schools, is a matter of serious concern. The quality of school education depends on various variables which includes physical infrastructure, method of teaching, learning environment, type of books, qualification of teachers, number of teachers, attendance of teachers and students and so on. There has been substantial progress in increasing enrollment with national average now at 98.3 percent (2009-2010) according to official statistics. However, the attendance of pupils in class rooms has declined. In 2007, 73.4 percent students enrolled for Standards I-IV/V were present in class, which has fallen to 70.9 percent by 2011 (EPW, 2012). Fayaz Ahmad (2009) came with the findings that despite lack of staff in government schools, teachers remain absent on rotational bases. He adds that due to vacancies for teacher, absenteeism of teachers and poor infrastructure in government schools classrooms are multi-grade, i.e. one teacher attending to children from different grades in a single classroom. The attendance of teachers and students in schools is directly related with the quality of education. Furthermore, mere enrollment of children in school does not fulfill the aims of RTE. Amman Madan (2003) argues the question of reform in Indian education has usually been conceived of in narrow ways putting children in school and getting schools to function efficiently.

Despite high enrollments in schools 50 percent of children studying in the fifth grade lack the reading skills expected of 1 children in the second grade.

Ensuring 25 percent Reservation

The RTE, Act, 2009 clause, 12 (1) (c) mandates for private schools to admit quarter of their class strength from weaker section and disadvantaged groups 1. The constitutional validity of this clause was challenged in the apex court of country. However on 12, April 2012, a bench of Chief Justice S .H. Kapadia, Justice K. S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar upheld the constitutional validity of the Act. In response to the Supreme Court order, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, I am very happy that the court has set all controversies at rest. One of the biggest controversies was on whether the 25 percent reservation applies to private schools or not that controversy has been set to rest.2 Reacting to the 25 percent reservation Krishna Kumar (2012) penned down most ambitious among its objectives is the social engineering it proposes by guaranteeing at least 25 percent share of enrolment in unaided fee-charging schools to children whose parents cannot afford the fee. Both Krishna Kumar and Kapil Sibal did not give indepth critical insight to the provision. The questions like, what will be the mechanism of selection process of 25 percent children from weaker and disadvantaged sections. Some private schools are very reputed and
1
(Annual Status of Education Report, ASER 2010).

provide very high quality of education and some are either at par with government schools or little ahead. There is a hierarchy of private schools which are stratified in quality education. Who will go where what will be the criteria for that? Furthermore Indian society is patriarchal in nature, boys are even served good food in comparison to girls how one can expect parents or guardians will send a girl child to these private schools, if at all they agree to send a girl child to school. The reservation benefits will go to a particular gender of society. This will further reinforce and reproduce gender bias and social inequality in society. Thus RTE itself creates a vacuum for reproduction of culture. Fayaz Ahmad (2009) underlines, parents prefer schooling for their girl child but prefer government schools for them in comparison to a male child. The important finding which has been revealed by Fayaz Ahmad2 is the enrollment shown in schools was higher than what actually it was. This was done to get mid-day meals for more and more children so that teachers can save some money to bear other hidden expenditures and avoid wrath of authorities for poor enrollment. Despite employment of Resource Persons and Zonal Resource Persons by Jammu and Kashmir government in the department of school education ,who are obliged to ensure smooth and normal functioning of schools, such kind of loopholes are observed, how can the government ensure that private schools will follow the provision of 25 percent reservation.

Fayaz Ahmad (2009)

Change in the structure of Classrooms and Beyond

The RTE Act directed all schools, including privately -run schools, to reserve 25 percent of their seats for students from socially and economically backward families. That means, quarter of students in classes will be from marginalized section of the society. This will change the structure of classes. Krishna Kumar maintains a classroom reflecting lifes diversity will benefit children of all strata while enriching teaching experience. He further adds classroom life will now be experientially and linguistically richer. It will be easier to illustrate complex issues with examples drawn from childrens own lives. He rightly articulates that class room will reflect diversity and will be experientially and linguistically richer. But his argument that classroom diversity will benefit children from weaker section of society is hypothetical and ambiguous. School education cant be separated from its social context, those who teach and learn carry with them attitudes, beliefs, habits, customs, orientations which differ from class to class. The elite schools have their own culture which suits to children of upper class. The teaching-learning environment at these schools suits children of upper class while children from weaker section may find themselves alienated from the schools. Bernstein (1971) while examining the mode of
3

Krishna Kumar (2012)

communication of working and middle class argues that both have different mode of communication and most of the teachers in schools belong to middle class which gives edge to middle class children in learning. Bourdieu(1977) empirical research in France explores that performance of a child in school on his access to cultural capital. He maintains that children of upper classes are able to understand contents of knowledge better than their counterparts belonging to marginalized sections of society. The present experience of India with mixed or diversified classroom is not encouraging. The children from marginalized sections of society are discriminated in the classroom on the bases of gender, caste, and ethnicity. Despite Indian constitution strictly prohibits discrimination on the bases of caste and other social backgrounds and makes it a punishable act yet children from marginalized sections are discriminated in schools. How can discrimination of weaker and disadvantaged sections be prevented? There are various theoretical and empirical studies which have come up with that children from lower classes are at a backfoot in schools in the learning process. They are more vulnerable when enrolled in elite schools.

CONCLUSION

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows" - said Sydney J. Harris. In our country, there are lakhs of young minds yearning to transform their mirrors of imagination into windows of reality. Unfortunately there exists an inability in our country for many to attain even basic education in the form of poverty. Right to Education is an effort by the Government to free people of this inability and enable them to attain basic education so that they can get sufficient knowledge to serve the society. I would like to analyze the merits and demerits of this RTE act and suggest some measures to improve its facilities. "He who opens a school door closes a prison" - said Victor D. Hugo. The importance of this act needs to be seen from this view as well. The basic provision of right to education is to provide free and compulsory education upto 14 years of age. But I would define the need of the country as "Quality and Basic Education for all Indian kids". The act itself is just a stepping measure, which is not enough for our country. That is minimum education must not be defined in terms of age but in terms of basic knowledge to be possessed to serve the society. And this is what is needed to be guaranteed free and compulsory. The second provision is that a Child would not be detained for failing until board exams. This is a very good meesaure to prevent students from discontinuing their studies due to failure in final exams.

The act specifies a fixed student-teacher ratio. But keeping within the sketch of limitated availability of professionally qualified and capable teachers, how this can be fulfilled will have to be thought about. It provides 25% reservation for economically disadvantaged communities even in private schools. It is a very good measure for enclosing students of all economic status into the field of education. How this can be funded has to be discussed. It specifies that teachers must get adequate professional degree within 5 years. It ensures quality teaching for students and in turn quality education. Another important provision is that it stresses upon improvement of infrastructure of school campus within 3 years or recognition shall be cancelled. This is a very helpful measure in providing quality education to students. This act also states that the financial burden shall be shared by state and central Governments equally. I would like to quote a statement by Derek Bon, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" . This is what should be realized by one and all in this country, as the Governments keep spending just 4-5% of our GDP in education. Should not money be there where the mouth is..? Sure, Education is an ornament in prosperity, but a refuge in adversity. But as we progress into more knowledge soceity, it is not preparation for life. It is the process of life itself. In this soceity where every task is getting mechanised mere experience cannot help a person to survive, as it did earlier. People look for educational qualifications as a mark of knowledge before entrusting a person with even mundane tasks increasingly.

Thomas L. Friedman once quoted "My Parents told me, finish ur dinner. People in China and India are starving". I tell my daughters "Finish your Homework. People in China and India are starving for your job". Our education has become competent enough to become noticeable in the international level. Let's improve it further, spread it all sections of society and lead this nation to more light. Indian children now have a precious right to receive free and compulsory education from the ages of 6 to 14 years of age. The government will bear all the expenditures of schooling. The act has mandated for private schools to reserve quarter of classroom strength for deprived sections of society, which will change the structure of classrooms in elite schools to school who are not yet enrolled. However, there are many apprehensions with regard to achieving desired goals through RTE. By pressing for 25 percent reservation for the weaker and disadvantaged sections of society, government has acknowledged poor quality in government schools where more than 90 percent of households in the country will have to enroll their children even if 25 percent reservation is implemented in true sense. This means that there will be further diversification of society in India. There are also concerns whether those enrolled in private schools will cope and adjust with education system and culture of elite schools. There are many other loop holes which are pressing and challenging in the way of RTE: quality education, funding, teacher skills and enhance of reservation policy are some major concerns.

Despite the flaws in the way of RTE Act, it is important to simultaneously ensure proper implementation of the Act.

Criticism
The act has been criticized for being hastily-drafted, not consulting many groups active in education, not considering the quality of education, infringing on the rights of private and religious minority schools to administer their system, and for excluding children under six years of age. Many of the ideas are seen as continuing the policies of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the last decade, and the World Bank funded District Primary Education Programme DPEP of the '90s, both of which, while having set up a number of schools in rural areas, have been criticized for being ineffective and corruption-ridden.

REFERENCS
Ahmad, Fayaz (2009)
A Sociological Study of Primary Education Among Girls: With Special Reference to Block Hajin of District Bandipora Dissertation, Barkatullah University.

Annual Status of Educational Report (2010):

Annual Status of Educational Report ( Rural) , assessed 21April 2012: http://www.pratham.org/aser08/ASER_2010_Report .pdf Bernstein, B (1973): Class Codes and Control: Applied Studies towards a Sociology of Language, London, Routledge Kegan Paul. Boourdieu,P (1977): Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction, In Karabel, J and A. H, Halsey, (ed), Power and Ideology in Education.OUP

Economic and Political Weekly (2012):

The Right to learn: Two Years after the Right to Education Act, the government needs to focus on quality,16 April, Vol XLVII No 16.

Kumar, Krishna (2012):

Let a hundred children blossom: A classroom reflecting lifes diversity will benefit children of all strata while enriching teaching experience., The Hindu, Delhi,20 April 2012.

Madan, Amman (2003):

Education as Vision for Social Change, Economic and Political Weekly May 31, 2003 pp.2135-2136

Sibal, Kapil (2012):

Admitting kids from weaker sections while not lowering quality of teaching will be difficult for pvt schools, but it can be done: RTE Can Be A Model For The World The Times of India, New Delhi, 20 April.