The Supreme Court's recent mandate that private unaided non-minority schools should reserve 25 per cent of seats for underprivileged children is being hailed as a landmark ruling. The spirit of the decision is indeed laudable as it reflects the egalitarian ethos of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Thus, as private schools open their doors to children from marginalised sections of society, the government pats itself on the back for...

Entrepreneurs and investors , who had only recently found innovative ways to invest in education as a business , are concerned about the financial impact of the Supreme Court ruling last week upholding the Right to Education Act. All schools, except minority unaided ones , will now have to set aside 25% of seats for poor students .  While most investors welcome the move , they also worry about funding the...

On Thursday, April 12, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the provision in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act — better known as the Right to Education or RTE Act — that makes it compulsory for private schools (including schools that have received no cheap land, one-time subsidy or contribution to ongoing expenses from a government agency) to take in 25% pupils from poor-income backgrounds. It...

-The United Nations An independent United Nations human rights expert today hailed a decision by the Indian Supreme Court to uphold a law which mandates that a quarter of the places in the county’s private and public schools should be reserved for disadvantaged groups. “Exclusion and poverty remain the most important obstacles to the realization of the right to education in all regions of the world,” said the Special Rapporteur on the...

While the state government has made it clear that the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) will be enforced from the current academic year, there are many who are still unclear as to what the Act means, especially the people who will be most benefited by it. RTE dictates that 25% of admissions in all private unaided schools (private minority unaided schools have been exempted) will be reserved free of cost...