From today onwards education has become our fundamental right and now every Indian children in age group of 6-14 years has right to get free and compulsory education.
The 86th Constitutional amendment making education a fundamental right was passed by Parliament in 2002. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, a law to enable the implementation of the fundamental right, was passed by Parliament in 2009. Both the Constitutional amendment and the new law came into force from April 01, 2010.
The new law makes it obligatory on part of the state governments and local bodies to ensure that every child gets education in a school in the neighborhood. It also mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections.
Its implementation will directly benefit close to one crore children who do not go to schools at present. These children, who have either dropped out from schools or have never been to any educational institution, will be enrolled in schools.
At present, there are nearly 22 crore children in the relevant age group. However, 4.6 per cent of these children (nearly 92 lakh) are out of school, a HRD ministry official said.
The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act. As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act.
The Act says no school can deny admission to a student and all schools need to have trained teachers. In case of schools not having trained teachers, they will have to comply with the provision within three years. As per the new law, the schools need to have certain minimum facilities like adequate teachers, playground and infrastructure.
Source: The Times of India
