The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill finally became an act. The “historic legislation”, as Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal described it, has the potential to positively change the education scenario in the country.
After the bill was passed by parliament, it made education compulsory for all children in the 6-14 age group. “This is the first time an effort has been made to universalise education in the country,” the minister said.
Besides free and compulsory education, insistence on having a national curriculum and quality education that gives three years’ time to schools to set up physical infrastructure or face de-recognition are some of its key features. It also calls for 25 percent reservation in private schools for disadvantaged children from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and socially and educationally backward sections.
rounak