The Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill on August 4, 2009. The Rajya Sabha, the upper house, had earlier given its approval to the Bill on July 20, 2009.

Once the Bill is approved by the President, education will be a right in India.

One of the flagship initiatives in the 100-day agenda of the UPA government, the legislation proposes free and compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14.

The legislation gives citizens a legal tool they can use against the government, its officials and school authorities who prevent a child aged between 6 and 14 from receiving and completing elementary education.

The law seeks to achieve ten broad objectives, which include:
•    free and compulsory education
•    obligation on the part of the State to provide education
•    curriculum to be consistent with the Constitution
•    focus on social responsibility
•    quality teachers
•    de-bureaucratisation in admissions and
•    participation of civil society in school management committees (where half the members will be women)
 
As the purpose of legislation is to set a certain standard for school education, it makes recognition of schools by a certified body a must.

A school monitoring committee comprising elected representatives of the community to ensure proper functioning of the school is also mandatory.

That apart, the National Commission for Elementary Education will be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education including quality.

Appointment of teachers will have to be approved by an academic committee.

The legislation prohibits teachers from taking private tuitions and schools from deploying teachers for non-educational purposes other than the decennial population census, disaster relief, and election duty.

The curriculum will be less rigorous and it will ensure all-round development of children. The medium of instruction to provide elementary education will, as far as possible, be the child’s mother tongue.

The legislation provides for 25% reservation in private schools for children from disadvantaged groups, including differently-abled children, at the entry level.

Minority education institutions will be asked to provide education to those disadvantaged within the community. Up to 50% of seats could be offered to students from their communities.

As per the Bill, no school should charge capitation fee for students, and any school charging capitation fee will be fined ten times the capitation fee charged by it for admission.

Schools will henceforth not be allowed to have screening tests at the time of admission. A school will have to pay a penalty of INR 25,000 the first time and INR 50,000 for each subsequent infringement of the rule.

Schools cannot deny admission to a child because of lack of age proof, and no child can be detained or expelled until the completion of elementary education.

Physical punishment and mental harassment is completely banned.

A recognition authority will be set up in each state and under it, every school will have to meet infrastructure requirements within three years.

States and local authorities have to decide on the framework for neighbourhood schools (without the interference of the Centre) within a span of three years.

The Human Resources Development ministry and the Finance Commission need to finalise the funding required to implement the law. The norms for sharing the financial burden between the Centre and states also have to be worked out.  

For this financial year, the Centre will need to obtain Parliament’s sanction for revised budget allocations.