hamza yousuf

islaimic caligraphy

mifracle of kaaba, hajj

Right to education – what, why and how?

The right to education means that the State should make adequate provision for educating its citizens. Education sharpens intellect, equips individuals with the capacity to work and trains them in the art of citizenship.

Citizenship has been defined “as the contribution of one’s instructed judgment to the public good.”

Education is an indispensable condition to free individual development and makes man fit for the tasks of citizenship. Laski says, “In the long run, power belongs to those who can formulate and grasp ideas.”

An uneducated individual can neither understand politics nor can he become vigilant about his interests and consequently his actual participation in the affairs of the State is generally negligible.

Such a citizen is bound to be the slave of others. He will not have the opportunity to rise to the fall stature of his personality. “He will go through life a stunted being whose impulses have never been ordered by reason into creative experiment.”

This means the failure of democracy, for the people who are ultimate masters will not be able to exercise their franchise intelligently or perform their other civic duties satisfactorily. Hence, the democratic slogan is: “Educate the masters.” Apparently, the right to education is a civil right, but really, it is a political right as it safeguards them.

Right to education does not, however, mean an identical intellectual training for all citizens. It only means provision for that type of education which should give an equal opportunity to all citizens in that branch of knowledge for which they have an aptitude. Then, there should be a compulsory minimum level of education below which no one may fall, if he is to conform to the standard of a good citizen.

Every citizen should have at least as much education as may enable him to weigh, judge, choose, and decide for himself. “He must be made to feel that this is a world in which he can by the use of his mind and will shape at once outline and substance.”

The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards.

Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010. The title of the RTE Act incorporates the words 'free and compulsory'. 'Free education' means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.