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20th
October 2006
Dear Mr.
Prime Minister,
The National Knowledge Commission has been examining a range of issues related to
school education, including access, quality and other issues. We believe that providing
universal access to quality school education is a cornerstone of development and a
minimum necessary condition for any progress towards making India a knowledge
society. We are in the process of extensive consultations and will make detailed
recommendations on various issues relating to school education at a later date.
However, at this point we would like to respond specifically to the recent initiative of the
central government of sending a model Right to Education Bill to the Secretaries of State
Education Departments, with incentives for the state governments to enact this bill. We
have perused the bill and consulted with a wide range of experts and educationists. We
feel that the model bill is flawed for a number of reasons, and most importantly that such
legislation must be enforced by the central government following upon the commitment
made in the Constitutional Amendment Article 21A. We recognise that there may be
concerns about federalism, since school education is dominantly the responsibility of the
state governments at present.
However, we feel that this matter can be resolved through an appropriate central
legislation which takes into account the following proposals:
1. Central legislation: Legislation at the national level is required to affirm the
Right to Education, which is a fundamental right mandated by Article 21A. Since
it cannot be dependent upon which state a citizen is resident in, a model bill sent
to be enacted individually by State Governments is not adequate to meet the
constitutional responsibilities of the Government of India. Therefore, a central
legislation should be enacted along the lines of the Panchayati Raj (Amendment)
Act, requiring the states to enact Right to Education Bills within a specified time
period, and with the primary financial responsibility for this resting with the
central government.
2. Financial commitment: The Central Government must provide the bulk of the
additional funds required to ensure the Right to Education. Therefore there must
be financial provision in the central legislation, requiring the central government
to share the revenues of the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh with state governments and
to provide additional resources as required to meet the requirement of ensuring
the right to education for all children. Estimates for the additional resources
required to achieve the goal of universal elementary education currently range
from 0.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP, depending on the criteria used.
However, the required financial resources are likely to be at the lower end of
these estimates, since there is already close to universal provision in several states
and there has been recent progress in providing more access through the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan in other states. |
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