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Although the government cites lack of funds, political considerations and pressure from the private school lobby appear to have played a part in killing off a proposed law to make elementary education in India free and compulsory
The hopes of 170 million Indian children of school-going age have been dashed, with the Indian government burying the landmark Right to Education Bill citing lack of funds as the main reason, even as it seems set to pump funds into the country's higher educational institutions in order to facilitate quotas for backward classes. The government, which was to table the Bill this week in Parliament, will now ask the states to implement their own laws to guarantee all Indian children free and compulsory education.
Another reason given for the government dropping the Bill, which operationalises the fundamental right to education for children in the 6-14 age-group, is opposition from India's private school lobby. Private schools are against the Bill as it mandates that private and elite schools reserve 25% of their seats for disadvantaged children. This crucial provision was considered by the sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education -- that prepared the draft Bill -- as a significant prerequisite for creating a democratic and egalitarian society. In fact the Law Commission, which prepared an alternative draft Bill, also maintained that 50% of seats should be reserved for poor students in all schools, irrespective of management or financing. Quotas for poorer sections in such schools were meant to end the rich-poor divide in India's school system.
Educationists and child rights activists, who are disappointed at the demise of the long-awaited Bill, refuse to swallow the reasons given by the government. Especially when the government appears ready to allocate funds to creating additional seats in higher education institutions to accommodate its reservation policy, but cities lack of funds for elementary education.
So, six years after the Constitution was amended to make education a fundamental right, the government will now pass the model Bill on to the states.
Source: www.oneworld.net, July 14, 2006
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