Teachers protest to safeguard right to education

Just a day after Teachers' Day, Delhi saw the basic education department staging a protest at Jantar Mantar, Delhi to demand the right of basic education for all the children aged between 6 to 14 years.

The protest was lead by the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Basic Teachers' Association, Durga Charan Sinha. He expressed his concern about the deplorable condition of Indian education system where a right as basic as learning to read and write is being snatched from children and the government is least bothered.

A press conference at Press club of India was also organised, where Sinha demanded a real implementation of the right which at present is nothing more than another law printed in the Constitution. He is amazed at the nonchalance shown by the government of the country where the tradition of education actually began.

He gave a vivid account of how revolutionary a role was played by education in India's struggle to freedom.

This group of teachers demands equal privileges for the children of the specified age group irrespective of their caste, religion or economic background. It's really ironical when almost all government officials proudly exhibit their private education thus posting a big question mark at the quality of education in government schools.

The Constitution clearly mentions the Right to Education along with a clause of free education to children from the economically weaker sections of the society. But our government is failing big time at ensuring even this.

This initiative taken by the teachers and Tej Bahadur Singh, Bankey Bihari Yadav, Ugr Sen Singh, Jai Karan Yadav just aims at making education as accessible and essential as air.

They want the Central and State Governments to jointly fund the basic education of children.