RTE Act makes it mandatory for all schools to reserve 25 per cent seats for such sections
Children from the disadvantaged sections of society will now have access to private schools as the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
The Act makes it mandatory for all schools, except minority unaided (religious and linguistic minorities included), to reserve 25 per cent of seats for children from the disadvantaged sections, the burden of which will be borne by the government.
Many private schools had opposed the move saying that since they did not take any grants from the government, they could not be legally bound to reserve seats and also the per-child cost as suggested by the government was very low. The government spends between Rs.6,000 and Rs.18,000 a child annually on elementary education and this will form the broad basis for reimbursement under the RTE, though the final amount will vary from State to State.
However, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld all provisions of the Act, and this will now help the government in enforcing the law effectively so that disadvantaged students can also have access to good quality education at the elementary level.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal expressed happiness at the verdict, saying it brought clarity and put all controversies to rest.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Sibal said litigation in court should never be seen as a victory or defeat — especially when the government was involved — because what the government was looking for from this litigation was clarity as it had an impact on millions of people.
“One of the biggest issues involved was [whether] 25 per cent reservation applies to private schools or not, which is also upheld by the SC, and it also does not apply to minority institutions. That controversy is also set at rest,” he said.
The Centre provides 65 per cent of the funds for school education under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan while the remaining is shelled out by the States. However, the 13th Finance Commission allocated additional resources when the Act was notified. This raised the sharing pattern to 68:32 between the Centre and the States. This will be applicable in 2013-14.
Welcoming the verdict, private schools in the Capital noted that they would need the government's support to ensure that “sustained quality education is imparted to all the children.”
Delhi Public School (Mathura Road) principal M.I. Hussain said: “Our school has been following the Delhi government's direction to provide reserved seats for students from the economically weaker section. This addition to the school, however, does put pressure on general students as the government has not made clear its stand on supporting the schools financially to take care of the EWS [Economically Weaker Section] students. We are committed to providing quality education but are not willing to tax paying parents beyond a limit.”
Springdales School (Pusa Road) principal Ameeta Mulla Wattal said: “We have been taking in 25 per cent EWS students at the entry level for the past three years.
RTE Forum convener Ambarish Rai welcomed the court's decision as a step towards bringing in greater equality of opportunity for all children in India.
Keywords: Right to Education, RTE Act, Article 21(A), compulsory education, unaided schools, inclusive education
Providing 25% reservation to economically backward people is laudable for the fact that for the first time an economic criteria is used without any discrimination of class creed, religion region backward etc.
this is what needs to be done for all reservations. And one should not be provided benefits generation after generation.
It is a known fact that these benefits are cornered by a small percentage of those eligible who create vested interest and large sections of eligible people continue to be deprived, Obviously a mechanism should be evolved for preventing repeated use and misuse.
THEY ARE FEELING ROASTED ON COAL-FIRE because their worst fear has come true. Now Aparthied Schools of Chennai (DAV-Gopalapuram, National Public School, Vidya Mandir, Padma Seshadri BB, etc.) will have to admit MUSLIM wards.
And hence the frustration/anger ! It is showing clearly. This issue is at the heart of the matter. Denying Education Access to Indian Muslims is at the heart of Hindutva Criminology., and its anti-human. It is disgraceful, to say the least.
If "wealth and opportunity" are not spread., if huge diversity(ies) esp. economic; continue., then they would provide fodder and prove to be the manure for a very bloody violent revolution. Patience of the poor is not limitless.
To Stop Revolution : SHARE.
Otherwise remember the Maoist anger is still seething at the ocean bed of the subconscious. One trigger and it will engulf India and the 10% growth rate story.
This judgement indirectly indicate how Supreme Court is now becoming a back supporter of Govt be it by force or be it by some tacit alliance but such an affinity is not constructive for true interpretation of law. When Govt is not supporting the private funded schools by any means they can not foce them to share the social responsibility. This will increase the fee & education cost for middle classes and further for Economically weaker sections, cost will increase as they have to follow the school's rule of dress, stationary, participation in extra curricular activities. Overall average cost of education will increase by this act. This will be a just decorative act in Indian system but still ineffective.
In summary it will constraint savings of middle classes.
Make no mistake that this will lead to a culture of entitlement that will be fatal to the culture of competition that we so badly need to protect. I am not saying that we should not care about the weaker sections of the society. I am only afraid how much reach would be over-reach. Can the government pass laws that each house in the country bring up one child whose expenses will be borne by the government at a price it would decide is the best? We should break free of the reservation culture. This reservation is far better than the caste-based reservations though.
The Supreme Court judgement is a big relief to the needy. But the Governments should not escape from the scene. The basic needs of the poor should be fulfilled by the governments only. Why can't the union goverment and the respective state governments strengthen the government schools and colleges on their own. It is high time the governments should have its own strong education set-up.
Most private schools have stipulations on the dress that students should wear. The expenditure on the text books and note books these schools prescribe will also be costly. Will the parents of the students from the disadvantaged sections of society be able to bear the expenses on these? The right solution to the problem of providing elementary education to all children will be to open more government schools and staff these with highly trained good teachers and to give very poor students money for buying prescribed text books. The children of parents with income less than a suitable minimum should be given priority for admission to these schools. High achievers from among the poor students of these schools should be given scholarships to join reputed private schools for high school education if they want to. The scheme now being thought of in government circles will only help private schools to get a handsome subsidy from the government by admitting a few poor students.
A really commendable decision by the government. Finally something good is happening at its root level! Hopefully, this reduces the need for reservations in college
The court's decision was said to be a step towards bringing in greater equality of opportunity to all the children.As per the ruling of the apex court the children of financially weaker section should be imparted free education by all the aided schools exclusively earmarking 25% of seats.But the mute question that requires an answer is how many children from the financially back ward families would attend schools when most of their parents prefer to send them to work rather than school to support the families financially to get on with the daily chores.In such an eventuality those seats unfilled with the FWS children will be alloted to other children ? Is it possible for the authorities to ensure this enomalies corrected in an appropriate manner ?
This is an assault on individual freedom. Can we say that everyone who owns a car must share 1 seat with poor people? I am not against poor people getting good education. Educating kids is a responsibility of Govt. Why force private institutions accept 25% kids from economically/socially poorer bacground? Who will pay for it? What happens to boarding schools? Are we encouraging poor to remain poor so that they can avail these benefits? Who defines economic backwardness? Does this indicate class envy?
Private institutions cropped up because govt schools did not provide variety and they did not innovate. Private institutes innovate and there is a market for that. So why mess it up? Can we also force private hospitals to admit poor for free? To me this law and judgement is private enterprise killer and born out of envy.
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