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Right to education faces court test by Samanwaya Rautray


Ten days before it comes into force, the Right to Education Act has been challenged in the Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of private and minority schools.

One of the petitioners’ main complaints is that the act will force these schools to teach up to a fourth of their students free of cost if they come from the neighbourhood.

Another is that the schools cannot even pick and choose from these, presumably poor, students because the act bans all admission tests or interviews — for either students or parents, and whether they claim free education or not.

The new law guarantees free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school to all children aged between 6 and 14 years till he or she completes elementary education. It comes into force on April 1.

“The Act is… violative of the fundamental right of private unaided schools enshrined under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution and the minority schools enshrined under Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution,” said the petition by the Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan, Jaipur.

It demanded that the act be struck down as violative of the Constitution, following which the court issued notices to the law ministry and human resource development ministry.

Free for all

Under an existing law, every government-run or state-aided school now has to reserve 25 per cent seats for those from economically weaker sections and provide them free education. The Right to Education Act extends this reservation to all schools — including unaided and minority institutions — so that a poor child in an area without a good government school can study free in a private school.

The Society, which claims to represent 100 unaided and minority schools, argued that this virtually means these institutions must admit whichever child turns up till they run out of the quota seats. It argued that the blanket ban on interviews robs schools of their right to decide the kind of student they want.

Admission tests and interviews are already banned under a high court judgment but many schools do run unofficial checks on the backgrounds, income and educational qualifications of their parents.

The new law also bans capitation fees, which pass under the garb of “donations”.

The petitioners have faulted the “neighbourhood school” concept too, saying it “discriminates” between children. For instance, a child from a slum bordering an upscale locality may have an elite school in his “neighbourhood” while a child from another slum or a village may not.

Besides, the clause will tie many poor children to bad government schools in their locality, denying them possible free education under the weaker-section quota in a better state-aided school elsewhere. A child is entitled to an equal right of admission to any school if he fulfils all the criteria laid down by the school, the Society’s counsel, Harish N. Salve, argued.

‘Holes’

The Society, set up in 1997 and headed by Damodar Prasad Goyal, also cited alleged technical flaws in the law. For instance, the act says any student above six who has never been to school should be admitted to a class appropriate to his age.

“Now a child starts at the beginning. But (under the new act) a poor child of 13 years will have to be admitted straightaway to Class VII,” Salve said.

The petition also complained that the act fails to “address the issue of quality education” and to grant rights to children under six.

“The act, enacted after six decades of Independence, has made this major error of depriving its youngest 16 crore population below six (of) their fundamental right…” it said.

Going beyond the Right to Education Act, the Society asked that private unaided colleges be exempted from the 27 per cent Other Backward Classes reservation.