EFA News
India’s Right to Education Act provides free and compulsory schooling for all children between 6 and 14
10.05.2010India’s “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009” came into force on 1 April, 2010.
The Education Act not only legalizes the right to education, but also places the responsibilities on the governments and local authorities to provide schools to these children. The Act also sets out standards and norms covering numbers of teachers, training and curricula, including a plan to train more than one million new teachers in the next five years and retrain existing teachers.
“This act is an essential step towards improving each child's accessibility to secondary and higher education, bringing India closer to achieving national educational development goals, as well as the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All (EFA)," said UNESCO New Delhi Director Armoogum Parsuramen. “UNESCO places the right to education at the heart of its mission, and stands ready to accompany all partners in their efforts to ensure its successful implementation.”
According to UNESCO’s 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, there are an estimated seven million Indian children and young people between the ages of six to 10 out-of-school in 2006, 65 per cent of them girls. Between 1999 and 2006, primary school enrolment in India increase by 19 per cent and by 24 per cent for girls.
“With the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years now has the right to free education. The Act while acknowledging the participation of private education providers seeks to ensure that equity and quality go hand in hand with improved access,” said Mr Kapil Sibal, Indian Minister of Human Resource Development, in his keynote address to ministers at UNESCO’s General Conference in 2009.
The act follows up on India’s flagship Sarva Siksha Abhiyan programme for Universal Elementary Education launched in 2001.
Related links:
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009