The Hindu : Bill on right to education gets Parliament nod

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 16, 2002

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National

Bill on right to education gets Parliament nod

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 15. After about five-and-a-half hours of discussion during which the Opposition questioned the Government's intentions for bringing in such a legislation, the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday unanimously passed the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution — making the Right to Education a Fundamental Right for all children in the six-to-14 age-group.

Though the discussion saw the Opposition challenge the Government on several counts right through, the differences in opinion did not translate into votes when the amendment was put to vote, and it sailed through with all 164 members present voting in favour of the motion.

Introducing the amendment in the Rajya Sabha nearly eight months after the Cabinet approved it and a good five months after it was cleared by the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Murli Manohar Joshi, quoted Gandhiji and Mao Zedong to show the importance world leaders attached to basic education. Blaming the British for undoing the educational network that India had prior to their arrival, he sought to show the 93rd Amendment as another measure to realise the dream freedom fighters had for independent India.

The Congress leader, Eduardo Faleiro, used the debate on the 93rd Amendment — a subject that requires the cooperation of the States for realisation of the goal — to nail the Government on the contentious issue of instituting the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which has been the institution for consultations with the States on matters relating to education.

Given the fact that no provision has been made in this year's budget for implementing the obligations that the State takes on itself by making basic education a Fundamental Right, the Congressman asked the Government how it proposed to implement what he thought was an "unnecessary amendment'' as there are enough provisions within the Constitution and several court verdicts providing the same.

Later, fellow Congressman, Kapil Sibal, echoed these very observations, and accused the Government of "doublespeak, insincerity and complete duplicity'' for trying to show the people that it had brought in legislation while making no budgetary provision to implement it. Also, he charged the Government with appointing RSS pracharaks as teachers in the one-teacher schools that have been opened across the country.

With the two Congressmen raking up the history textbook controversy and charging the Government with saffronisation of education, the BJP benches were quick to respond; stating, as did the Minister later in his reply, that the debate on this particular amendment should not be politicised.

Though the Minister sought to address the apprehensions of members in his reply, an issue that remained unresolved pertained to the rights of children in the zero-to-six category.

In between, the TDP member, R. Chandrasekar Reddy, demanded compulsory education for all children up to the age of 15, while the CPI (M) member, Chandrakala Pandey, suggested some amendments to the Bill to plug the deficiencies.

Curiously enough, both the AIADMK and the DMK voiced similar sentiments with the former's N. Jothi asking for more Central assistance and the latter's M. Shankaralingam stating that it was the Centre's responsibility to ensure quality education in the country.

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