Education for all may not remain pipe dream

NEW DELHI: Seven years after Parliament approved an amendment to the Constitution making education for children between the age of six and 14 a fundamental right, the apex legislative body will take up the enabling Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009. The Bill has been slated for consideration and passage in the Rajya Sabha for Monday.

The legislation has been cleared by the parliamentary standing committee. The Cabinet gave its approval to introduce the Bill on July 2. Though an initial draft of the legislation had been prepared by the NDA government, progress was slow with early elections. With the BJP-led alliance voted out, the task of honouring the commitment was left to the UPA government. A draft law was prepared by a committee headed by the current human resource development minister Kapil Sibal.

The UPA government spent five years discussing and debating it through various committees and groups of minister. For the Bill, it has been a long and arduous journey, with questions being raised on the financial outlays and justiciability of the legislation. By the time a solution was found, it was too late to take up the legislation. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha to ensure that it didn���t lapse. The standing committee headed by senior Congress leader Janardhan Dwivedi suggested changes. Of these, three major suggestions were incorporated into the Bill, including 50% representation of women in the school management committees.

Given the support for the 86th Constitutional Amendment, political support for the Bill seems to be a foregone conclusion. However, sources said there could be some objection to the provision to set aside 25% of seats for poor children in private schools. Once the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill is passed by both Houses and receives presidential assent, the 86th Amendment to the Constitution will be notified. As of now, free and compulsory education is part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Both the Centre and states will be responsible for the finances. The Centre will prepare the capital and recurring expenditure and provide it as grants-in-aid to each state from time to time. The share between the Centre and states will be decided later.

The cost to the exchequer will be nearly Rs 12,000 crore every year, even private unaided schools will get

assistance, as 25% of their seats will have to be reserved for poor children in the neighbourhood. However, the Bill is clear that schools which got land at a concessional rate and were anyway obliged to give reservation to 25% poor children in the neighbourhood will not be compensated. Compensation will be based on per-child expenditure by government on education. Currently, per-child cost borne by government is about Rs 3,000 per annum.

The legislation has a host of features that stress not only on reaching out to every child in the 6-14 age group but also on quality and accountability of the state and education system. To ensure that the law gets effectively implemented, the Bill has provisions prohibiting teachers from undertaking private tuition and not letting them being used for non-educational purposes.

To ensure that parents have equal stake in the system, the Bill provides for school management committees in all government and aided schools. Women have been given 50% reservation in the school committees. Each committee will monitor and oversee the working of the school, manage its assets and ensure quality.

There is also a provision that teacher vacancy should never exceed more than 10% of the total strength. To monitor implementation of the law, the Bill proposes a National Advisory Council at the Centre and state advisory council in each state capital. In case of complaints of non-compliance, the initial complaint would go to local authority and should be resolved within 90 days.