Right to Education becomes fundamental right tomorrow

A historic law making education a fundamental right of every child will come into force tomorrow, directly benefiting close to 10 million children who do not go to schools at present.

The importance attached to the legislation could be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an unprecedented move will address the nation tomorrow highlighting the various aspects of the law.

Nearly 9.2 million children, who have either dropped out from schools or have never been to any educational institution, will get elementary education as it will be binding on part of the local and state governments to ensure that all children in the six to 14 years age group get schooling.

The law is coming into force after the Centre and states resolved all issues for its implementation and agreed to share of funds in the ratio of 55-45.

Education became a fundamental right of every child in the age of six to 14 years through the 86th amendment by inserting a clause in the Constitution in 2002. Parliament passed the enabling law last year.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act has been notified with effect from tomorrow.

The Right To Education is being touted by the UPA government as another major achievement after Right To Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

At present, there are nearly 220 million children in the relevant age group. However, 4.6 per cent of these children (nearly 9.2 million) are out of school, a ministry official said.

The Act makes it a right of every child to get education. The Act makes it obligatory for the appropriate governments to ensure that every child gets free elementary education.

The Act mandates that even private educational institutions have to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections.

The Finance Commission has provided Rs 25,000 crore to the states for implementation of the Act.

As per the government's estimate, there will be a requirement of Rs 1,71,000 crore in the next five years for implementation of the Act.

Certain schools have already challenged the law in the Supreme Court as being "unconstitutional" and violating fundamental rights of unaided private educational institutions.

However, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said that legal process would not affect the implementation of law.