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The model Right to Education Bill runs into one more hurdle as states find the financial burden of the Bill too high
India's draft bill on the right to education is in a financial logjam once more with the states saying they cannot implement the Bill unless they receive financial assistance from the Centre. The watered-down model Bill was sent by India's Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry to the states for their consideration late last month.
The states' problem lies with a clause in the model Right to Education Bill 2005 that makes it mandatory for schools to pay the fees and other school expenses of school students from Class 1 to VIII, since, under the draft Bill, all out-of-school children between the ages of 6 and 14 (including disabled children) will have to be in school and the government would have to pay for their education.
Government-run or aided schools will also have to set aside reserved seats and pay for the education of children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who can be identified on the basis of their annual household income. However, the appropriate local authority appointed by the states will specify the school where the child can be admitted. Also, parents who choose to admit their children in non-free quota schools will not be allowed to claim free education from the state, according to the model Bill.
The HRD ministry estimates that the cost of implementing this will be around Rs 50,000 crore, an amount so large that it literally passes the buck onto the states, abandoning the idea of a central Right to Education Bill. Thereafter, it has asked the states to draft their own laws to actualise the fundamental right to education, based on the model draft.
Now, it says: "We can provide 75% of funds where free education has been enforced in unaided schools and up to 50% in other states." The ministry's rationale is that the prospect of more funds will prove to be an incentive to private schools to adopt the policy of free education for those who cannot afford it. However, the model bill makes no mention of this provision -- another point that has irked aided schools. "It is more or less silent on special provisions for unaided schools, as it was in the earlier version of the Right to Education Bill," says Kavita Krishnan of the All India Students Association.
In fact the HRD ministry, under pressure from private schools, has dropped almost all sections on the regulation of unaided schools in the model bill. The only sections still in the model bill pertain to disallowing admission on the basis of capitation fees or interviews.
One of the few clauses that is acceptable to the states is a state-wise administrative set-up for improving the quality of education.
Source: The Hindustan Times, August 18, 2006
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