Free education bill draft ready

More than two years after the NDA Government amended the Constitution to provide free and compulsory education to all children between 6 and...

More than two years after the NDA Government amended the Constitution to provide free and compulsory education to all children between 6 and 14, the Centre is set to introduce the legislation during the Monsoon session of Parliament.

If passed, the bill will impact the lives of at least 21 crore children in the 6-14 age-group.

With UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi keen to implement Article 21a of the fundamental rights, the Human Resource Development Ministry has prepared the draft legislation that will be put up to the Central Advisory Board on Education CABE tomorrow.

Prepared by a committee headed by Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, the draft legislation was handed over to HRD Minister Arjun Singh last week. It will be put up for Cabinet approval after CABE vets the draft. Singh has reportedly forwarded a draft to Sonia.

Aware that students need to attend schools located in the neighbourhood, the draft legislation mandates that private schools must admit 25 per cent of children aged between 6 and 14 without admission tests.

State Governments will have to compensate private schools but schools will have to foot the remainder by restructuring the fee structure. The bill is a model for states to implement according to their requirements since education is part of the concurrent list.

The Government will have to generate a lot of resources as Rs 80,000 crore will be needed to implement the proposed bill. This is over and above the Rs 47,000 crore 8212; 0.5 per cent of the GDP 8212; that the Government is spending on elementary education at present.

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The draft legislation will have a schedule appended to the proposed bill laying down minimum statutory infrastructure requirements for neighbourhood schools which ought to be implemented within three years. This would mean an end to open public schools; the institutions would have proper buildings, blackboards, telephone and electricity.

The bill also calls for setting up a national commission to ensure implementation and state-wise institutes for training teachers. The bill has no plans to control private schools nor any punitive measures, but it wants school committees set up to make sure teachers do not play truant. The legislation will not touch existing Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navyug schools.