“The founding fathers of our Constitution did not intend that we just set up hovels, put students there, give them untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds and say primary education is expanding...they meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14.”
—from the draft report of the committee on the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act
When a policy that promises a revolution in education is put into effect on All Fools’ Day— a day associated with hoaxes and practical jokes—it’s quite natural to treat it with a healthy dose of scepticism. However, educationists say the Right to Education (RTE), despite its coming into effect 17 years after a Supreme Court ruling that citizens have a fundamental right to free education, is a welcome move. The RTE enumerates the responsibilities of the central and state governments, teachers, parents and civil society to make the right to free...
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