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The enabling legislation to ensure the fundamental right to education to Indian children has been watered down yet again, with Indian government deleting a crucial clause on quotas for underprivileged children in private schools, in the model Bill that it has sent to states for their feedback
India's private school lobby appears to have had its way with the government yet again, with the latter dropping a crucial clause in the model Right to Education Bill making it mandatory for unaided schools to reserve 25% of their seats, from Class 1 onwards, for underprivileged children. This is another setback for a law that seeks to ensure free and compulsory elementary education to Indian children. It comes close on the heels of news that the Bill is set to be grounds for a tussle between the Centre and the states.
The government has deleted this key clause from the draft Bill, which has been sent to the states for their feedback. The clause is seen by educationists as a way to ensure equitable education to all children in India. The recommendation for a 25% reservation was made by a committee constituted by the Central Advisory Board for Education, headed by India's science and technology minister Kapil Sibal.
The committee had recommended that state schools (government-run) of specific categories and all unaided or private schools should provide free and compulsory education to at least 25% of children admitted to Class 1 who come from underprivileged backgrounds. Children from these backgrounds were to be randomly selected by the schools to make up the quota.
Another crucial deletion in the draft Bill is the proposal to have a National Commission for Elementary Education, headed by an eminent educationist appointed by the President of India.
Meanwhile, in a related development, state education secretaries have asked the Indian government for more time to consider the model Bill. In mid-June, secretary, elementary education (now re-designated 'school education') Champak Chatterjee wrote to the state education secretaries seeking their views on the model Bill. Initially given three weeks, the states have now asked for an extension to consider the Bill and its implications.
The states say they will not be able to adopt the model Right to Education Bill in time to meet the Centre's deadline for the Eleventh Plan period, since this would require them to revert to the Centre by December 2006 in order for the Centre to work out the financial modalities. In early July, the then West Bengal school education principal secretary, D Chakrabarti, said: "Our views have been sought, and we have begun the process of discussion at various levels. The model Bill has enormous implications and we need to understand whether the state has the resources (and) management ability."
States have also objected to the fiscal 'carrot' that the Centre has proffered to coax them into adopting the model Bill. They say it amounts to "shirking of responsibility by the Centre". To ensure that states adopt the model Bill from the Eleventh Plan, the Centre said it would provide 75% funding for elementary education for states that adopt the model Bill, while those that don't will receive only 50% of the funding, according to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the states and the Centre for the universalisation of education programme.
The states say shifting the burden of financing the Right to Education Bill onto them will place an additional burden on their scarce resources. They contend that the Centre has already been collecting a 2% education cess to finance elementary education for two years.
Anyway, state education secretaries argue, this is not much of an incentive as the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan (2002-2007) accepts that funding for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (universal elementary school education programme) will continue to be on a 75:25 sharing basis until the programme ends in 2010.
Source: PTI, August 8,
2006
The Economic Times, August 1, 2006
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