New Delhi, July 31 (Inditop.com) Sixteen years after the idea was mooted, a bill aiming to provide free and compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14 was introduced in the Lok Sabha Friday.
“This was a matter of national importance for UPA (United Progressive Alliance government). This bill is just not about taking children to school. This is a bill that speaks about quality education, it speaks about the physical infrastructure, teacher-pupil ratio, qualification of teachers,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said after introducing the bill.
The minister said that the the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Bill, after becoming law, will provide “free education to students” that would be “compulsory”.
Sibal said an academic committee will be set up to evaluate the quality of teachers and if a teacher does not have adequate qualification, then he or she will have to acquire it within five years and failing to do so will mean losing the job.
The minister said the idea of such a bill was mooted in 1993 and in 2001, the Constitution was amended to make education a fundamental right. But the amendment also had a rider that to make education free and compulsory, a separate bill has to be introduced. “So, technically, we have had to wait 16 years for this.”
