Hope it will lead to eradication of poverty and inequality!

Education is now a fundamental right

NDTV Correspondent, Thursday April 1, 2010, New Delhi India now joins a select few countries in the world where education is a fundamental right. The historic act, the Right to Education (RTE), comes into force today. It's one of the most important pieces of legislation to be passed by the UPA government. As one of his dream projects enters the implementation stage, Human Resource and Development Minister Kapil Sibal told NDTV, "This is a historic occasion. Right to Education Act is about the future on India. Hence education is a national responsibility."(Watch: Education is a national responsibility, says Sibal) The Act promises to ensure education for all children between 6 and 14, a whopping 22 crore children, out of which nearly 1.1 crore are out of school. But the road ahead will be a difficult one. The availability of good teachers has become one of the most crucial crisis points in the Act's promise to make quality education available to all. "In many schools there are hundreds of students in one class and the gap between thetraining given to teachers and what they practise on the ground is huge," says Arshita Dass, a teacher of La Martiniere school. The other major infrastructure hurdle will be establishing a balance between Centre and State. Several regulatory measures can only be taken after individual inputs from state governments. Also, questions about how the responsibilities, both fiscal and social, will be divided remain unanswered. "While a nominal ratio of 65 per cent by the Centre and 35 per cent by the State has been settled, the Centre has to be prepared to shoulder a 100 per cent burden if the situation should arise. Only that would show their commitment to the cause," says: Ashok Agarwal, the Chairperson of the NCERT committee on RTE implementation. These and other problems litter the path to ensuring a fundamental right to all children across the country. But the HRD Minister seems confident. "Nothing will change overnight, but at least we have created a framework to take this project forwards," he says. Neither the letter of law nor a speech from the Prime Minister will ensure education to all the children in India. But if the many infrastructure hurdles can be crossed, then the RTE could change the face of education in the country.