HC asks Centre on plea seeking uniform syllabus for children

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to inform it whether there was a "uniform syllabus" for all the children aged 6-14 years across the country.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked the counsel appearing for the Centre to take instruction on the issue and posted the matter for hearing on August 16.
The court's direction came on a plea seeking a direction to Central government to "provide common syllabus and common curriculum to all the children aged 6-14 years".
The plea, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, also sought a direction to the Centre "to provide an authoritative textbook on 'Environment, Health and Safety' and 'Socialism, Secularism and Nationalism' for the children aged 6-14 years and a standard textbook having chapters on fundamental rights, fundamental duties, directives principles and the golden goals as set out in the Preamble..."

It further claimed that the prevailing education system under Article 21A of the Constitution was "inconsistent".
"The right of a child should not be restricted only to free and compulsory education, but should be extended to have quality education without any discrimination on the ground of a child's economic, social and cultural background," the plea said, adding, "There must be no discrimination in quality of education".
It said that the Right to Education Act envisages not only free and compulsory education but also equitable quality education having a common syllabus and common curriculum to all the children aged 6-14 years.

"Uniform education system would ultimately eliminate disparity and discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth and lead to equality of status and of opportunity in all matters in spirit of Preamble of the Constitution," it said.