In this Guest Post, Praveen Dalal, managing partner of law firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court Lawyer, is discussing about the implications of the Right to Education Act in India. He opines that Right to Education is a Successful Failure of India.
He maintains that the Right to Education Act was drafted in haste and without many deliberations. The Act has also “Diluted” the “Protections” available under the Constitution of India. The Right to Education Act has unnecessarily diluted Article 45 and has artificially created an age slab of 6 to 14 years.
Of course, the State is under an obligation to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years under the reframed Article 45. This would again create a conflict between The Right to Act, Article 21A, Article 45 and Article 51A (k).
The best example of this conflict is the Pre School Admissions Procedure that starts at the age of 4 in New Delhi. Various schools have framed their own “Point Criteria” that is going against the mandates of Article 21A, 45 and 51A (k).
If the State is under an Obligation, to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years, the Pre School/Nursery admissions are clearly its obligation. Till now the State has failed to fulfill this obligation.
Further, by introducing the age slab of 6 to 14, all Inconsistencies, Violations and Corrupt Practices happening at the Pre School/Nursery Admission stage have also been “Ignored” by the State. This is encouraging the Schools to openly ask for “Donations” during Pre School/Nursery Admission Stage.
The Act is also discouraging filing cases and taking legal actions against Schools/Individuals that violate all the basic norms of Education and indulge in “Corrupt Practices”.
It seems the net result of the Right to Education Act is to give “Full Leverage” to Schools, imposing “Obligations” upon the Parents and “Abdicating” the Constitutional Duties on the part of the State.
Fortunately, the Delhi High Court is presently considering many of these aspects and I hope it would come up with some good “Solution” in this regard that was expected from the Supreme Court and Central Government and State Governments.
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