(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. Insertion of education as a Fundamental Right – 86th Amendment Act, 2002)
“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development” ~ Kofi Annan
EDUCATION IS a key to development of humanity. Future of any country depends on the nature of education system of the country. Though members of constituent assembly knew the importance of universal education but even then, due to paucity of resources they could not provide it as a fundamental right, but it was mentioned in Directive Principles of State Policy. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of India Court affirmed the fundamental right to education in two landmark cases –
Mohini Jain v State of Karnataka,1992 – SC held, “Right to education is the essence of the right to life and directly flow and interlinked with it, and life living with dignity can only be assured when there is a significant role of education”. Case did not specify age limit for this right to be exercised and
Unni Krishnan J.P. v State of Andhra Pradesh,1993– Court held “Right to education means citizen has the right to call up the state to provide the facilities of education to them in according to the financial capacity”. “Thus it is well observed by the decisions of this Court that the provisions of Part III and Part IV are complementary and supplementary in nature to each other and fundamental right means to achieve the goal inculcate in Part IV of Indian constitution, It is also observed that the fundamental rights should be established in the light of the directive principles”. This case specified age upto 14 years
In Bandhua Mukti Morcha, etc v. Union of India– Court held that “It would be therefore the necessary duty of the State to ensure the facilities and opportunity to children enjoined under article 39(e), 39 (f) of the Constitution and to prevent exploitation of their childhood due to extreme poverty and notion.”
In December 2002, the Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment) Act was passed, entrenching the right to education in Article 21A which reads: ‘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.’ Article 21A is in Part III of the Constitution and therefore the right to education is now considered a ‘fundamental right’ under the Constitution. Article 21A contemplated enabling legislation. 86th constitutional amendment act, 2002 brings three new changes in our constitution:
Insertion of new Article i.e, 21A in part III of the Indian constitution, which provides that every child has the right to free and compulsory education of equitable quality and subject to some norms and standards.
Bring alteration and modification in Article 45 and substituted as the State shall endeavour to assure early childhood care and free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of six years.
Adding the new clause, (K) under Article 51A, the result of this new fundamental duty is added which states that whosoever is a parent or guardian has a duty to furnish opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age group of six to fourteen years.
In the matter of Avinash Mehrotra v Union of India,2009 the Supreme Court of India interpreted the right to education to include the right to the provision of a safe environment in schools, and imposed an obligation on schools to comply with certain fire safety precautions which were detailed in the judgment. This decision provided that the State’s duty cannot be discharged by the provision of unsafe schools. The State must ensure that children suffer no harm in exercising their fundamental right to education and, accordingly, must ensure that schools provide safe facilities as part of a compulsory education.
Judiciary or parliament have clearly explained the nature of this newly created fundamental right especially with reference to its possible clash with already existed fundamental right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Supreme Court has got several occasions to discuss the nature of rights provided by article 30 (1), such as in Re Kerala Education Bill, Xavier College v. State of Gujarat, Stephen’s College v. University of Delhi, T.M.A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka. But every time the issue was related only to the extent to which various government regulations may penetrate in to the right to ‘administer’ minority educational institutions; even in Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v. Union of India,2014, constitutional bench of apex court concentrated only on the question that whether aided or unaided minority education institutions are under obligation to provide “free” and compulsory education to “all”.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RCFCEA) was enacted in August 2009 and came into force on 1 April 2010. Key Features of RTE Act:
Every child in the age group of 6-14 has the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school, till the completion of elementary education.
The act prohibits donation, capitation fee, screening test/interview of child or parents, physical punishment or mental harassment, private tuition by teachers, and running schools without recognition.
The Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act mandates schools to keep aside 25% seats for underprivileged children of society through a random selection process. Government will fund education of these children. No seats in this quota can be left vacant. These children will be treated on par with all the other children in the school
No child can be held back, expelled and required to pass the board examination till the completion of elementary education. [This is now set to change through The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017- The Right to Education Act, 2009 prohibits detention of children till they complete elementary education i.e., class 8. The Bill amends this provision to state that a regular examination will be held in class 5 and class 8 at the end of every academic year. If a child fails the exam, he will be given additional instruction, and take a re-examination. If he fails in the re-examination, the relevant central or state government may decide to allow schools to detain the child. ]
The Act provides appointment of appropriately trained teachers.
It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition,
It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, and which would ensure the all-round development of the child.
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