The Supreme Court on Thursday by a majority of 2:1 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which provides for free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 and 14 years and mandates government/aided/and non-minority unaided schools to reserve 25 per cent of the seats for these children.
A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar while upholding the law, however, held that it would not be applicable to unaided minority schools. Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, gave a dissenting judgment.
The majority judgment said: “We hold that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is constitutionally valid and shall apply to a school established, owned or controlled by the appropriate Government or a local authority; an aided school including aided minority school(s) receiving aid or grants to meet whole or part of its expenses from the appropriate Government or the local authority; a school belonging to specified category; and an unaided non-minority school not receiving any kind of aid or grants to meet its expenses from the appropriate Government or the local authority.”
The CJI who wrote the judgment said: “It will operate from today. In other words, this will apply from the academic year 2012-13. However, admissions given by unaided minority schools prior to the pronouncement of this judgment shall not be reopened.
“By judicial decisions, right to education has been read into right to life in Article 21. A child who is denied right to access education is not only deprived of his right to live with dignity, he is also deprived of his right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1) (a). The 2009 Act seeks to remove all those barriers including financial and psychological barriers which a child belonging to the weaker section and disadvantaged group has to face while seeking admission.”
The Bench said: “It is true that, as held in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation as well as the P.A. Inamdar judgments, the right to establish and administer an educational institution is a fundamental right, as long as the activity remains charitable under Article 19(1) (g). However, in the said two decisions the correlation between Articles 21 and 21A, on the one hand, and Article 19(1) (g), on the other, was not under consideration.
Further, the content of Article 21A flows from Article 45 (as it then stood). The 2009 Act has been enacted to give effect to Article 21A. For the above reasons, since the Article 19(1) (g) right is not an absolute right as Article 30(1), the 2009 Act cannot be termed as unreasonable.”
The Bench said: “To put an obligation on the unaided non-minority school to admit 25 per cent children in class I under Section 12(1) (c) cannot be termed as an unreasonable restriction. Such a law cannot be said to transgress any constitutional limitation. The object of the 2009 Act is to remove the barriers faced by a child who seeks admission to class I and not to restrict the freedom under Article 19(1) (g).
“From the scheme of Article 21A and the 2009 Act, it is clear that the primary obligation is of the State to provide for free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 and 14 years and, particularly, to children who are likely to be prevented from pursuing and completing the elementary education due to inability to afford fees or charges.”
Keywords: Right to Education, RTE Act, Article 21(A), compulsory education, unaided schools, inclusive education
The problems started since 1834 with the arrival of lord macaulay.He changed the eduaction system of India forver.It took him only 4 years to destroy our eduaction methods completely but our government need more time....
1. Private schools set up with private money. Don't force them to what
you want.
2. If you care so much, increase govt. school facilities and
standards. Certainly funds do not lack, but will.
3. Who will pay for this? Not school. Not govt. Parents of other
children. Stop charging education cess. Stop charging income tax. They
are anyway supporting by paying money. Why ask them MORE & MORE in
different ways?
4. Govt. Schools in Chandigarh are much better. Poor administration is
the reason at other places. Please improve that.
5. Make these things voluntary, like CSR. You are encroaching on
freedom of school owners.
6. If (like in case of lots of reserved category students at various
good colleges) these students find unable to compete(fail),should they
be thrown out?You may ask them to retain.
7. Make whole education free as in other countries. We have enough
fund(repeated), or use 1% income tax collections for education.
Please govt stop acting like china. Enforcing whatever you want.
@Anoop, I agree to your comments. We don't need an elitist India, we
need self sustainable India. We need inclusive growth. We need equality
given due rights to underprivileged. We need peace not at the expense of
poor toiling hard day night.
One must remember that personal freedom granted under Article 19 and
personal liberties mentioned under Article 21 should not be read in
isolation.
Both of them supplement and complement each other and thus there does
exist an element of overlapness . But taking into consideration , the
social relevance and the intended beneficiaries , the ruling of the
court seems to be appropriate under the given circumstances.
Reservation of 25% seats in Private Schools for the children belonging
to the lower economic strata of the society is a move in the right
direction and imparts much more teeth to the 'Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education Act,2009'.
The judgment is welcomed but not totally; because the government has passed on its duties to the private sectors. It is the duty of the government to introspect why the schools run by its are not to the standardard they talk off.Private schools gives quality education for the allround developemnt of the child. It has the right to take wage for the labour it does.The private schools have to invest lot of money to construct quality class rooms and to employ quality teachers to give quality to children. The government is spending crores on the school it runs but the results are minimal.English education should be given government grant so that you donot need such a policy or billl. It is hightime the government should give its school to sincere trusts to run quality education in the country.A bill should be thought on this line.
@Chanakya Thanks for the correction about the quotation. Regards.
Minorities can be permitted to have their own educational institutions but should not limit the admissions to their own community, except if that is a religious education institute. At least 50% of the minority institutions' students should be open to all and they should be allowed to reserve only up to 50% for their own community. In the end their own community may get more than 50% since some of them could be selected from open to all category also. And this 25% reservations for economically backward sections should apply for both the categories in minority institutions too, aided or unaided. More important, public and government schools to be encouraged and increased, with more facilities, and the fees structure of private schools (for all and any students) to be strictly regulated and kept as low as possible. T.A. Pai's judgment is a catastrophe for socialistic reorganization of society and it unashamedly supports capitalist degeneration in education too.
Just wait and watch This will be another disaster and debacle like Reservation policy which pretends to help 70 % population but actually ended up helping power hungry politicians.
When a child is born, it has the right to get educated. The RTE is only for education upto tenth std. i.e. for the child bet 5 years and 16 years. Obviously the child cannot itself go to school.Two parties who are responsible for the child's education are its parents and the government. The latters responsibility is to have enough schools nearby. The schools belong to 3 categories; i) the govt. schools (includes those run by corporations, municipalities, district boards, panchayat boards; in other words local authority), ii) govt aided schools - those started by Trusts and aided by Govt funds and lastly the private schools. If we really study the situation, we see almost all parents send their wards to one of these schools. Only those who use their children to earn money for the family,those drunkhards do not send their children to schools. They should be imprisoned for this. Secondly the local authorities which fails to provide schools must be punished. Then Why bounce on pvt schools
There was a time getting educated at government school or getting treated in a government hospital was a matter of pride. Things are no more like that.Hope somebody takes a serious look at this issue. One also fails to understand why minority institutions are exempted from this ruling. Are their no underprivileged people in those categories and if that be hte logic the raison d etre of these institutions ceases to exist
For all those who oppose it citing capitalist values(I am a believer in capitalism), I
urge them to look at the file Photo closely.What a beautiful picture. Children walking such long distances in the baking hot sun of India; wearing almost-torn chappals, yet finding contentment to laugh at a possible joke, to smile.
Shouldn't these Children deserve to study at the school that your Children do?
The India that we want is not an elitist one. Let us be fare and level the playing field. It is what capitalism all about. Remember, capitalism's ultimate aim is to generate wealth. This move will certainly achieve that.
This judgement will embolden corrupt Govt employees to poke their
noses in the day-today functioning of Private schools. Now Govt
indirectly gets to decide who these 25% of pupil are going to be. If past is any indication, this very idea is going to create havoc with school administration. Now Supreme Court in just one stroke, slashed the available seats of private school by 25%, hence it is going to get costlier. Govt will suck more blood indirectly from middle class. Middle Class will pay more to Schools who will pay more bribes etc to Government officials. What a shame. I think SC should leave alone private institutions or else we will have no where to go.
Kudos to the Supreme Court for having upheld the RTE Act. Schools should be diverse, should have kids from diverse cultural, social economic background. Govt should encourage private schools with diverse composition with monetary help. Kids should grow sensitised of the existance of a diverse society. Govt should take steps to prevent any form of segregation, illtreatment of the poor kids so that the goal of RTE is met. Groups such as Youth For Equality etc. are the product of homogenous composition of schools who are alien to the society we live in. Diversity will bring in a just and egalitarian India as promised by the constitution of India.
This is great news that the court has upheld RTE. But we need some legislation in school discipline. There is no method of disciplining a student that is acceptable to parents and the media. If one student hits a co student then all that the teacher can do at the moment is to advise the student lovingly that he/she should not hit others. But even a child knows that this is a foolish way. If by chance the teacher acts in a way that would correct the erring student then the parents of the teacher will file a police case against the teacher and all the media will side with the parents. Its time the government took some steps in preserving discipline in schools.
There is a scam waiting to happen here ! Who/what determines who is
poor/ economically backward ? IT returns are bogus for the large part and there are ways to cover up income.. Focus should be on strengthening the government machinery.. better facilities, teachers, and more schools. Don't go after the few schools that have been successful because they have been run well and had a solid academic focus, and meddle in their affairs to bring their standards and governance down.
Hypocrisy thy name is India! If rules and regulation could make a
country great, India would have been far ahead of the rest of the
nations. It has plethora of laws and statues, extensively written Constitution etc most of it beyond comprehension of common man and
even if understood seeking legal remedy through our courts is like
willing submitting to lifelong torture.RTE will also join this
jungle of laws with out delivering the promise. Edmund Burke rightly
observed "Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises,
for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing."
Mostly the students from private schools are somewhat good.From that, what is the use for our nation. Now the education become as business than service.Many of the students from private schools doesn't have sprite of social responsibility than government school students.Any how now 25% of children from weaker section have access to good quality of education.I think these children can find the economical difference in the school days itself.Let them do something for our nation.I think these students will not get out of our country after growing from India.
Previously schools used to be a Non-Profitable Organizations. Now it has become a business. By mandating the 25% reservations to the needy children, doesn't at all solve the problem. First define the meaning of needy student. Because, first of all the private school's owners will protest against this, then they will increase the fees of other students.
The RTE law should be grafted in such a way, that the school owner should accommodate the additional student, without treating them differently, and in rarest situation, the school should be given subsidy.
Govt is spending crores of rupees in government school. But the quality of education has declined year by year. The main reason for that is corruption in appoitment of teachers. The second thing is no proper monitoring of the school.Action should be taken to address these things then only Govt has the moral right to ask the private schools to give admissions to poor children. However the court verdict is welcome one.
great. If the govt cannot run govt schools effectively,and by throwing the valuable responsibility of providing one constitutional safeguard on the shoulders of privately run institution in the name of quality raises a basic question on the very purpose of the existence of its rule.If privately run institutions are to do the job then what better job would the govt end up doing? produce more Scams?
It is the duty of the govt to provide better quality of education, (eg: America).It is not the DUTY of private run institutions.By imposing a law on society just reflects the inability of the executive wing and the imbalance of judiciary.
Why this government and speechless (prime) minister is not actively participating in
building the free and top class education centers? If it is done, even richer will be in
the queue for taking admission in this centers.
It is already proved that this government is most corrupt than ever before.
Now it is the question, is this government is useful or we have to show in next
elections.....?
whether the verdict helps to solve the issue at hand or promote a new issue, is confusing...
2. What will happen to the govt schools( the remaining 75% of the kids) if the 25% of kids from the govt schools end up in private instituions? Who decides which 25% would move to private institutions?
4. Who wouldnt want a good quality education provided by the private instituions? this may result in reduced enrollment in govt schools.
It would rather be a better idea to shut down all the govt schools and promote private schools with incentives from the govt. in the name of quality education
This is a great judgement by our honorable supreme court, but the
intention of our government and private institution regarding the
implementation of this act is not cleared yet, government don't want to
spend more money on education to its public education system,so it has
surpasses this responsibility to private schools indirectly more burden
to public because private school don't to like play with their profits..
I wish government should be vigilant for the implementation for this
rule.
Why exemption for MINORITIES? The British Minority Ruled the Indian Majority. So.. our spineless leaders love Minorities!
Shame on this spineless characterless leadership to act in such manner on private schools.
Try to Do the same to five star hotels, Do the same to air travel, Do the same to Entertainment halls and Shopping malls. then everything will go down the drain. Give 25% free. Why not?
Why exemption for MINORITIES? The British Minority Ruled the Indian Majority. So.. our spineless leaders love Minorities!
Shame on this spineless characterless leadership to act in such manner on private schools.
Try to Do the same to five star hotels, Do the same to air travel, Do the same to Entertainment halls and Shopping malls. then everything will go down the drain. Give 25% free. Why not?
Also why to you need the Blessed Supreme court to DISCOVER the Right to education? Where was this blessed court and leaders when a 1000 crore 'office' was planned for a chief minister? cant that be use to upgrade 1000 government schools? SHAME
Why the exception is given to the so called Unaided Minority Institutions? In what way providing the 25% reservation for poor children differs in case of Unaided Majority Institutions from Unaided Minority Institutions? What is the basis for Minority differentiations? Whether is it Religion, caste, poor, educated, different sections of SCs/STs/BCs, regional, language etc.? Every category mentioned above is minority when it is compared as a whole. If religion wise minority classification, are forexample 13.5% muslims are minorities when compared to 7% STs, 15% SCs (Though these sections are still classified)? The H'ble SC should explain the reason of rationale behind the exclusion of so called Minority institutions and also clearly mention what is it means by Minority institutions?
However, SC should request the Govt. to provide free education till 12th std. for all like in Germany by improving facilities on par private institutions.
Now here is another form of Government failure presented with a name of educational reform and supprted by judiciary. Introducing another reservation.. where are we heading towards?? it increases the burden on Middle class education.. allows the govt to continue their poor performance in eductional sector.. and increase the discrimination between the children in same platform but with different backgrounds.. I wish our Government learn the quote of A.Lincoln as stated by witan above. “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”
Any socially concious soul will laud the SC verdict . We are happy for Education to All & mixing of the elite and weaker sections in the class room. Still, i feel this Education is not Equal to all . A mere pecentage of less than one can not give the poor man`s education equal to the rich .
No govt did not cosider the common children`s desire to do their education in english medium which is the previlege of rich.the students educated in english medium are having a big edge over in jobs and status.Two language system is enough with a common syllabus CBSE. Education can be divided into two parts;cultural&career.1.cultural part - mother tongue,social studies, morals, arts should be taught in mother tongue. 2.career part - english (written and spoken),maths and sciences should be taught in english.Poor students will have equal opportunity in education without bpoor students will have equal opportunity in education without burdening their parents and imagine the amount of human talenT
To my previous comments- Law should be enforced that all top official(Revenue officers/COllectors/IPS/IAS/all Group A serice/Group B officeial) kids shoudl get educated in govt school, then you see how school function, there require no law to monitor or enforce any misbehave on same. Vry Importantly - All Ministers kids should also get educated n govt school, then see what will be perfomance of school. There should be law that 3 generation of (Revenue officers/COllectors/IPS/IAS/all Group A serice/Group B official) kids should read in govt school start from nursery to higher education .. you will find the society will grow in good manner. It may be harsh to digest but the relality is that..
One of Landmark Judgement - Thanks to Supreme Court and Judges who pronuced this Judgement- The script of Judgement is spectacular with cross referriign the other article of constitution. I would say - Law and Constitution are already there in counrty since hte independence- based on this Law/Constitiution our Judges extract and pronouce the landmark judgement. System is very good, but people who are working are not GOOD. If Collectors of district and DSP of Districts, Revenue office or commissioner of District work prpoperly then without law enforcement we can provide good education to country - Collectors nevers visit schools or his sub-oridinates, similarly polices never montior each and every action of school crimes, Revenue office never checks,montior, audits the schools or insitiition accoutns..becos of this lots of corrpution in many form happens and people get deprived..Why this happens..because these people kids study in high standard and good schools.
My daughter is studying in a Public school ( In California ). So as other Ex-IItian's kids, VP, Director's kids. We dont pay any money to school., but get very quality education. Some argue why cant we do the same in Govt Schools in India. I studied in Govt aided school. We had teachers who are capable of teaching good. But they teach only in after school hours tuition. I hardly had Chemistry and Physics class. Somehow I got into some Engg. School. Now when I am working most of my Indian colleagues are IITians., also they come from DAV, DPS or Vidya mandir. Whatever it takes to achieve several years for me after so many trial error fo what to do how to do etc., they achieve at much younger age. I dont see there is much difference in Problem solving or creating ideas between myself and them. The quality of education they earned at thier younger age make them better equipped to do and make confident decisions in a more methodical way. I strongly urge for equality in education.
This is an landmark jugdement has been pronounce by the honourable SC,RTE must be preserve but I am unable to get clear regarding the nursury going pupils.Now a days there is a huge hue and cry for getting admitted to the pre-primary shool,also in the name of getting admission a lot of amount is being taken from the parents,isn't it the non conformance with fundamental right of the childrens in 3+ to 6 years children?Is the Act of 2009 is throwing light on this?
The CJI should be thanked for giving such a historic judgment that will open the door for quality education to the children of poor families. It should be made mandatory to make the government to pay for the whole expenditure required by such children and this will enable the private shcools to retain the present fee structure without hiking it. A govt. that specialises in scams can render the assistance required by the poor children. RTE is the only good thing that UPA 2 did so far.The govt. should take decisive steps to improve the quality of education in state run schools through frequent monitoring of its working and sacking the principals of such schools where it is found that they are uninterested in running the schols efficiently.
Witan,
The quote “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”
is not by Abraham Lincoln. It is by William J. H. Boetcker.
Back to the main topic. It is not right way to deal with education
system in India. As someone noted this is same as robbing Paul to pay
Peter. Where does the tax amount we pay to the Government go? Why not
build schools and teach kids on par with Private schools. Why not rate
these Govt schools and let the public know the standards of these
schools. This way people will have an idea to decide between Govt and
Private schools. Education is a basic necessity in a society. Its
shame it took nearly 63 years for the Govt ( most of the years ruled
by Congress) to come up with this thought, rules and policies. Still
it is not going to resolve the core issue. SHAME Indian Government.
And Thanks to The Hindu to open up this topic for general public
comments and suggestions.
A landmark verdict, and an excellent one. There is a chasm between the
private schools that middle class frequents and that of a corporation
school. This gulf has forever perpetuated an underclass, which very few
students are able to break free from. No amount of upgradation of
infrastructure can bridge that. This move brings children from across
strata together. Bravo.
Good judgment and let us see how it will be effective especially on the private schools . We can be happy , if the poor children get quality education with free of charge in private schools and it will create a great milestone to this government.
More than 40% of schools in TamilNadu are unaided minority schools (christian schools to be specific). Excluding these schools from the RTE act puts a dent to the purpose for which it was framed. It is high time we stop segregating educational institutions based on religion. Education to all should be the only goal. All Institutions which are providing educational service should be treated equally. People of all ages(young and old) should be able to pursue education. Unfortunately this is not the case in our country. There are number of restrictions based on age, religion, caste that hampers an individual's education choice and his/her career in the long run. Much work needs to be done to lift these educational obstacles for our citizens
First of all I would like to bring your attention towards Point 2
mentionsed below. What I am writing here is expression of my personal
opinion. You should put that as it is. You can say someone is biased
to something but still you should not cieze his right to express his
feeling just because he is disagreeing to your views.
I just feel only one thing about all this crap, govt. is having no
vision and plan for the future of our country. First they brought RTE
and now this judgement. If we get a chance I would, why do they
discriminate students. Why my govt. is so incapable that after 65
years of Independence still we are in need to reservation to move our
society up.RTE is good step but sorry I see this reservation same as
other reservations, which were made for betterment of society but
ended up providing better ground for politics and our country get
degraded. This time in name of education.what a pity. we all know
condition of govt. run schools.Nothing more to say
From a jurisdictional point of view, the purpose of this law is to try and make sure
that children from poor backgrounds have access to education. The very fact that
children will be selected from a lottery to get into the 25% quota is silly. The
government is basically trying to eliminate the luck as a factor for these children to
grow (because they were unlucky to be born poor) but it placing luck as a
determinate factor when ask kids to succumb to a lottery to get an education. The
policy is illogical.
Secondly, if the government cannot monetarily aid private schools, then clearly the
quality of education would drop. The worst to be hit are the 25% since the 75% can
still afford after school classes to make sure their kids receive a good education.
The end result: the 25% coming out of school will have certificates but their level
in society will still be worse off than the 75%. How does RTE achieve its purpose?
Even on the government's paradigm, the poor are discriminated.
What is fun of giving exemption to minority institutions? This is against fundamental right of Hindus and it frustrates the ideals of Ambedkar who introduced this section in Constitution with good intention and this is being misused
What is fun of giving exemption to minority institutions? This is against fundamental right of Hindus and it frustrates the ideals of Ambedkar who introduced this section in Constitution with good intention and this is being misuused
There should be an act that children of all politicians should study in India. They play with our education (right or wrong is different issue) while their children play games abroad.
One of the Best picture i have seen in many years with so much meaning to it! well done to the photographer.
3 kids without a slipper, and all of them wearing a neat uniform dress.
this picture talks loudly of the optimism we have at our best..
wonderful...
The decision is ok.. but why should minority unaided schools be let scott free?
Should'nt they also have a equal responsibility to the community?
Any private school be it minority or not should be asked to open you thier gates in a fair manner
The decision is ok.. but why should minority unaided schools be let scott free?
Should'nt they also have a equal responsibility to the community?
Any private school be it minority or not should be asked to open you thier gates in a fair manner
The Supreme Courts ruling to uphold the Right to Education Act, making it
mandatory for educational institutions to admit 25% students from poorer sections
of society, is a noble and balanced decision. This will now provide equal
opportunities to economically backward students to learn, play and compete with
equals, a feature that was sadly denied to them for generations. Unfortunately, in
the world’s largest democracy their feeble voices were never heard. Depriving the
poorer students a level playing field by disallowing them access to ‘quality’
education in a rapidly advancing technology-driven world is an act of failure on
the part of every Government. For some sections of society to clamour otherwise
against the present SC ruling is both misguided and shortsighted. The outcome of
this change will be felt in 10 to 20 years when India can boast of a surge of
talented youngsters and literacy will reach every nook and cranny of our society,
be it in cities, towns or villages.
Very good verdict indeed. India is not a private property of wealthy
people alone.
It would better to take 25 percentage income frome private college and establish an education fund.And with this fund we can educate poor.Becoz poor students are not in position to accumodate them self with rich students.Also this will create pshycligical problem with them.
This move guarantees 25% seats to be filled at the least.These 25% seats would be later claimed as compensation by the school to cover for the free services provided.
We could not be blind to foresee this when private engineering colleges started getting 50% allocation of seats from gov't pool , the Free seat - payment seat nexus is at work here.
23000 seats were not filled this year in engineering colleges in Karnataka.Do you think they will get students in schools so easily( think of rural areas here).I don't think so, not even a bit.
The number of unaided minority educational institutions will go up.It
is high time we do a total rethink on this minority-majority
categories and ensure that in the name of secularism and what not,
majority is not punished while minorities are pampered.But those talk
of social justice will not do that as they rely on minorities. The
left parties are always pro-minority and so anything that benefits
minorities however irrational it may be is secular to them.In the end
RTE Act will end up as a cruel joke on some sections while some others
can use that to fleece in the name of education.They will have the
cake and eat it too.
Very good verdict by the Apex court. As Logakanthi rightly put it - "So, the children in these schools never get to know about social reality, which in the long run nurtures prejudices and intolerance in them". And instead of critisizing this radical decision for the increase in the private school fees, we citizens should create pressure groups and should protest against the unprecedented fees hike.
After reading all the views above and verdict of supreme court, I have following points to raise:
1. How govt. is going to decide if a person is poor or not? Person in irregular employment sector can easily cheat. Thus first implement a process where government knows monetary situation of a person. Like job, property etc.
2. This would encourage poor to produce more children as they are sure of getting good education. First make law that no parent should bear more than two children.
3. Increased fee in private schools as a result of this verdict would disparage middle class parents who spend maximum amount of their salary in school fee. This will eventually lower or degrade the school quality. Because private sector is just interested in money.
4. Nation building does not happen by forcing people. Communism failed in Soviet and Capitalism is still surviving. Because its natural form of government. No one will work unless they have motivation. This would demotivate hard working people.
This judgement of apex court, undoubtedly, is historical, but with many repercussions in its kitty. One, private schools would pass on the burden of operational costs to the other students. This would in no way affect the upper class students but lower middle class students would be foisted to take review of their monthly budget. This could force them to join government schools, which are in shambles. Two things could emerge out of this, either middle class parents would try to seriously streamline government schools or else would end up losing their child's career in government schools. Two, education would become more inclusive in india which is necessary to bring down the inequality. Further, being an important indicator of development, education would help india to capitalise on its demograhic divident.
Private schools should also be prevented by law from expelling students when parents protest against fee hikes. This incident happened in Vibgyor High Mumbai due to vindictive school management taking law into their own hands. When the mother approached the Bombay HC, the surprising ruling was that no injustice was done to the student ! The petitioner's request for the presiding Judge to recuse himself (owing to his family's ties to private unaided school business) also went unheeded. The mother had to move SC to seek justice. For any ordinary parent, this is a Himalayan hurdle to cross. Private schools have to be made accountable, and must be reminded that profit should not be the sole motive and they cannot play with the future of students.
India's tax collection in recent times is impressive. For example, in 2009-10, the
government achieved the targets of 92% of indirect tax and 79% of direct tax
collection. These figures prove the point that rich and not-so-rich people pay for all
public services including education and health. Inefficiencies in providing various
public services result in poor quality services and force people to pay private
providers for education, health and other services making Indians pay twice to access
most services. Add to these, bribes paid to make public services work! This is unfair
and unacceptable. Therefore, legislation and policies alone won't suffice. They must
be implemented effectively for realizing the RTE.
Ah! I hate this judgement. Did I start NPS in bangalore to educate poor but brilliant children? No way. I am only going to accommodate Politicians and bureucrats children, come what may. hell with you all!!
A necessary social verdict from Supreme Court. But why the Supreme Court did exclude the minority un-aided schools? These schools are also part of the society (where poor students are not able to access the elite schools) and it should be included.
Justice Kapadia and justice Swantanter Kumar must look into this and issue necessary orders to include the minority un-aided schools. If they do so, before the judges’ life time, they can witness a huge numbers of poor students study and rise to the same great standards of Justice Kapadia and justice Swantanter Kumar.
By the way, why can’t govt try to raise the standards of government owned schools?
Which body is going to monitor this scheme? This is a strong foundation for our future India; Apex court must make sure, the right poor student is selected. Provide priority to girls and handicapped.
Why not let the poor become free members of clubs that our elites go to like golf clubs, etc.? Why should the middle class, through taxes, pay for govt. schools & again, pay extra in *unaided* schools? Aren't you worried about the massive intrusion of govt. in private enterprise? Why is education as a business such a stigma? How about mandating that 25% of all clothes bought by the rich in a mall be provided free to the poor? It'd be a noble endeavor. It is disheartening to see how easily we give up our freedoms, our control over our choices & our subservience to the hegemony of govt. in the name of the "greater good". Looks like thousands of years of despotism have not taught us the values of being skeptical of those in power. There is no such thing as a free lunch. By wanting to have homogeneity in our education, do you propose that we lower our standards, as seen in US public schools?! Private school is a choice. It is not a *right*. How did the Court miss that one fundamental point
The courts and Government should decide the status of 44 deemed universities which are doing as they like in admissions and even passing all unworthy students just for money, Why Kapil Sibal is not moving this issue, Poor bring votes, rich bring money to our politicians
This is an excellent judgement by the Honorable Supreme Court. Ever since the Act was enacted government officials and local politicians have made the lives of private unaided minority school administrators miserable with their bullying. Am glad their days are over and now the minority schools can continue providing quality education to their students without such bullying.
The Government is just cutting its nose to spite its own face. This
is nationalization under another name. If the government cannot
provide schools to the poor, why do they have to trample on the
rights of unaided minorities institutions and destroy the character
of these schools? This is the Ghettoization of the revered
institutions of India.
A welcome decision from respected judges. It is the time that nation
should take some strong decision like RTE to protect the basic rights of
citizen. It is now the responsibility of central, state and administration of UT to implement the judgement. It may seem that
private organization will have a free hand to increase the fees so that
government must come forward to invest in developing the basic
infrastructure in education so that the very purpose of the judgement
can be achieved.
For the child to get educated in an environment of equality and love they should be given better and modern school in their locality.
You dont need to teach great and bigscience to them.Let us teach them how to confront the worldly situations in a better way with science etc.Let them lean to sing,dance,play roles dramas.they should speak up,
sit erect and extend their hands with dignity. I went to Dindivanam where Mr.Kalyani runs school. not affluent;but really arouse a man,
The Supreme Court's judgment is praiseworthy with regard to educating
the poor. However I am doubtful how the government is going to identify
the poor with proper definition because it may vary from place to place.
Unless the execution of this act is closely followed up, the vision of
this act will be eclipsed. For the poor, quality education would be a
far-away dream.
Just giving a reservation for poor and underprivileged won't work here.
what we actually need is the introduction of one single syllabus and
board all across the nation and then try to improve access for poor to
the institutions. It is not something that can be made possible by the
citizens alone but, this has to be done by the Government itself with
much care since every child is important for the growth of the nation.
Great Government , if education is of serious concern ,then raise the quality of government funded school like other countries or we are waiting for another Scam to come in light like 2G we will have Scam on the name of "government school -funded money SCAM".
indeed god judgement. See in your commentators comments their attitudes.
Some say communist some one says cutting into their pockets deeply. So
one gentleman says even unaided minorities institution may be included.
From this how Indians from wealthy and rich are philanthropic can be
seen. Hope this reservation of poor children i suppose, THIS act is not
suffering OBC/SC/ST/BACKWARD KIND OF RESERVATIONS, as these creamy will
also cut into wherever freebees are available. Any way over supreme
court ruling is indeed good.
Merely getting the school registered under minority institution would escape from the responsibility of nation building, now all new private school have the option to find the loophole and escape from the law. One of big brands in varanasi like sunbeam schools has already found the solution as soon as RTE came in to force by converting itself legally to sikh minority institution, that too at a place where hardly only 1 or 2 child in the entire school is of sikh community.
@Mahadheesh, regarding "every household (above a certain socio-economic
level) must sponsor for the food and clothing of a poor family?"
We already have this, it is called *income tax*. How well the whole
system works is a different issue.
What has been overlooked is that the Act also has provisions for compensating private schools for admission of children under the 25% quota which can be compared to school vouchers, whereby parents may "spend" their vouchers in any school, private or public. So fear about private schools increasing their fees is not well grounded. Main concern for the private schools will be decrease in their quality because of reservations. Instead of going for 25% reservation, govt should go for its phased implementation like it went for OBC quota of 27 % in three phases of 9% in IITs and IIMs
Very good judgment from Supreme Court and it is unfortunate that Unaided Minority schools have been left out from RTE Act. These Minority Unaided schools are culprits charging hefty amount of Donation and Fees from Parents, schools like Bishop Cottons and Baldwins in Bangalore are getting away with their Minority Tag and at the same time fleecing the Parents. Now the greedy politicians will allow Minority Institutions to open more Schools and try to defeat the very purpose of the Act
It is a good act to achieve homogeneous education to all class of our society, in my opinion it should include minority unaided institution too.
This is a good verdict. Good private schools are beyond the reach of many. If the purpose of education is to build a better tomorrow, we cannot have the current business attitude towards education. Education is supposed to be a service. The private schools fees structure makes it unaffordable for many people from the society to send their children there. So, the children in these schools never get to know about social reality, which in the long run nurtures prejudices and intolerance in them. The private schools are already charging a high fees and making great profits, so inclusion of 25% free seats for merit would not harm their pockets largely. Such merit systems are not unheard of and is practiced in both developed and developing countries. Atlast it seems like we are waking up!
The Right Law , But I think it has come very late as a vast majority of our poor and disadvantaged population has already missed out the chance to have quality education and they would only keep struggling in this baised society of ours.But let's hope this order is applied uniformly across the board and our present and future generations benefit from this Landmark Verdict.
Government lacks visions on education. The whole country is down only because of lack of global visions on education. Politicians are minting money in privatization of education. India is largely a uneducated country, because of faulty policies on education. So long as education does not improve, India has no future. Government budget on education should increase to 10 percent of GDP. Other nations are doing why India cannot?
It'll be a burden to common man, but has its fruits in educating all the children and reduce burden on govt. Good thought out idea to impose a little more stress on rich people to do some favours to the country
Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”
It is for the State to see that the implementation of the Supreme Court order will not result in a weakening of teaching in private schools. I have seen "reservations" make it happen in institutions of higher learning.
Remarkable how our perceptions cloud the reality! RTE was necessitated
because the government/corporation/village schools became a stigma and the
gulf between them and the so called elite/private schools kept widening. The
reason was simply the government/corporation/village schools were starved off
funds, infrastructure and quality teaching staff. I studied in a government
school in a Panchayat some 2 scores of years back, started learning English
only in class 6, learnt all subjects in mother tongue, had classmates/bench-
mates who were mostly first generation school-goers....Most of them including
me did well in life I'd believe. The head master was a Muslim; no heads rolled
when the morning prayer song was to a Hindu God/Goddess nor was
Vandemadaram objected. We all crowded around a van carrying missionaries
who freely distributed Bible and various books; most of us Hindus topped the
weekly tests held on Bible by those missionaries... they did not ask us to
convert. We messed it up.
The exclusion of minority institutions from the ambit of the RTE Act is a negative
development. This would definitely be used as a tool for greater arbitrariness by these
schools.
The RTE Act provides free and compulsory educations to all children of 6-14 years in
neighborhood schools, but the entry level in many schools is at the age of 3+ and the
children of age group of 3-6 are not fully protected under the Act. I fail to understand the
reason why the "neighborhood" criteria is applicable only to EWS category children, and not
for all categories of children. The SC's verdict is silent on the issue.
First of all kudos to your photographer for the beautiful file photo above. Although
the 25% quota is better than no school at all for poor children, I loathe the State
governments for the apalling quality of education in government schools, particularly
in rural areas. Right to education implies right to quality education for city as well as
village children. Sub-standard government schools indirectly promote private
schools. Since government schools are downgraded, children have no option other
than dropping out or going to private schools. Enrolment in private schools in rural
areas increased from 19% to 26% between 2006 and 2011. Is it the government's
intent to promote and increase privatization and corporatization even in basic
education?
Now that the final judgement has come, it is only fair that the "educational cess" be removed, since the government has conceded that it cannot provide education to its young citizens.
RTE is a most mandotary rite but Our goverment is not focusing for proper implementation of it. Every child has a special powers but all goes waste,it's not exploited.It is not a matter how many children can read words of a particular language,matter is that how may of them can creat future of India. Our goverment is not thinking that what will be gain of this rite if it left in polices without adequate implementation
Is there any measure to find who is poor or not?
I remeber when i was a student of B.tech in Nagpur University, whenever a student apply for the scolarship on minority quota (SC, ST, OBC). he/she had to produce the documents of thier family's annual income. If it was above a level(defined by govt.) they were not eligible for the scolarships, but the income they show is 7-8 times lesser than what their parents income was.
Govt. schools are in a shambles: incompetence, corruption, abysmal
standards, indiscipline, etc. are their hallmarks. This was not the
case several decades ago; the rot has set in due to political
interference. A backboneless govt. that cannot fix its own system is
now forcing the hands of those who are able to give quality education.
And now the Supreme Court is backing the government's shameful stance.
Has the apex court asked the govt. why it cannot provide quality
education in the schools it runs? Getting admissions to good schools
will now become so much more difficult, as if it was not difficult
already. When will there be deliverance from such politicians and
policies?
We all know that our (Indian) government or bureaucracy is far from perfect: there is no doubt about the institutional failure in providing equal access to quality education. But it is also true that the privileged in this country, with a few exceptions, have done little to break down the barriers of caste, class and gender. If affirmative action were working voluntarily, there would have been no need for such reservations. This court ruling in support of the Right to Education Act is significant because it brings to bear the full force of our constitution in support of the underprivileged.
Really it is historical verdict from which the future generations will going to get to "some" extend benefits..Unless the restrictions imposed on the private schools fees structure no ordinary students will enter the school gate...
This would give another reason for Private schools to hike their already
high fees to bear this increased operational cost. In other words the
burden is passed on to other students in the School.
Nobody asks why Govt does not spend taxes wisely to create better schools than private schools to educate the poor? An abiding aspect of "Congress Culture" over the last 64 years has been "Robbing Peter to pay Paul (and the VIPs)". This is precisely what the Right to Education Act has accomplished once more. Taxing education to release more funds for "safe havens"
Ah !But nothing will change in the elite schools of Chennai. Muslim wards will NOT be admitted to National Public School Gopalapuram (and Bangalore)., DAV-Gopalapuram, Vidya Mandir, ROyapettah, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and others. The gates of these Schools will remain closed for Indian Muslims. You need a Mass Movement to pull these gates down. Something like what Ambedkar did in Sangli., forcing open gates of the temples !
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