Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE) is an Act of the Parliament of India, enacted on 4 August 2009, implemented the right to free and compulsory education for children from 6 to 14 years in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution.^[1] India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.^[2][3][4]

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
Parliament of India
Long title An Act to provide for free and compulsory education to all the children of the age of six to fourteen years.
Citation	Act No. 35 of 2009
Enacted by	Parliament of India
Assented to	26 August 2009
Commenced	1 April 2010
Related legislation
86th Amendment (2002)
Status: In force

History

Article 21A of the 86th amendment to the Indian Constitution made education a fundamental right in 2002. However, it did not describe how this right would be implemented, specifying that legislation would be needed.

The bill's first draft was prepared in 2005, causing controversy by setting aside 25% of seats in private schools for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, among others. The sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education which prepared the draft held this provision as necessary for a democratic and egalitarian society. The Indian Law Commission had initially proposed 50% reservation for disadvantaged students in private schools.^[5][6]

With this, India moved to a rights-based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this right, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act. 17.^[7]

Precedents

The RTE Act is not unprecedented; universal adult franchise in the act was opposed since most of the population was illiterate. Article 45 in the Constitution of India was set up as an act:

The state shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. As that deadline was about to be passed many decades ago, the education minister at the time, M C Chagla, memorably said:

Our Constitution fathers did not intend that we just set up hovels, put students there, give untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds, and say, we have complied with Article 45 and primary education is expanding... They meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14 – M.C. Chagla, 1964^[8]

In the 1990s, the World Bank funded the establishment of schools within easy reach of rural communities. This effort was consolidated in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan model in the 1990s. RTE takes the process further, making enrolment of children in schools a state prerogative.

Passage

The bill was approved by the cabinet on 2 July 2009.^[9] The Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 20 July 2009^[10] and the Lok Sabha on 4 August 2009.^[11] It received Presidential assent and was notified as law on 26 August 2009^[12] as The Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act.^[13] The law came into effect in the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1 April 2010. When adopting the Act, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated, "We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education. An education that enables them to acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes necessary to become responsible and active citizens of India."^[14]

Highlights

The RTE Act provides for the right of children to free and compulsory education until completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school. It clarifies that 'compulsory education' means the obligation of the appropriate government to provide free and compulsory admission, attendance, and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group. 'Free' means no child must pay any fee, charge or expense which may prevent them from pursuing and completing elementary education.

Admission and access to education The RTE Act requires surveys to monitor all neighbourhoods, identify children requiring education, and establish facilities to providing it. The World Bank education specialist for India, Sam Carlson, has observed:

The RTE Act is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibility of ensuring enrolment, attendance and completion on the Government. It is the parents' responsibility to send the children to schools in the US and other countries.^[15]

It also requires newly admitted children be assigned an age-appropriate class.

Implementation Framework The act specifies duties and responsibilities of governments, local authorities and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and the sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the central and state governments. It establishes School Management Committees (SMCs) in all schools facilitate parental and community participation in education. Monitoring and accountability frameworks are also laid down. The RTE Act created a 14-member National Advisory Council (NAC) for implementation of the act.

Quality It lays down the norms and standards relating to pupil-teacher ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, and teacher-working hours. It requires the deployment of enough trained and qualified teachers, ensuring that the pupil-teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just an average for the state, district, or block, preventing urban-rural imbalance in teacher postings. It also prohibits deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.

It requires the development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, for the all-round development of children, building on their knowledge, potentiality, and talent, ensuring they are free of fear, trauma, and anxiety through a system of child-friendly and child centered learning.

Child friendly provisions It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition.

The details of the Right to Education of persons with disabilities until 18 years of age are laid down under the later Persons with Disabilities Act. A number of other provisions regarding the improvement of school infrastructure, teacher-student ratio and faculty are made in the Act.

Amendments

The Right to Education (RTE) Act in India has undergone several amendments over time. In 2017, an amendment extended the deadline for unqualified teachers to obtain required certifications, focusing on teacher training through distance learning. The 2019 amendment removed the "no-detention policy," allowing states to introduce examinations in Classes 5 and 8 and detain students who fail while mandating remedial instruction and re-examinations. Future revisions may expand the Act's coverage to early childhood and secondary education, aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which stresses digital learning and vocational education to address contemporary challenges.

On 7 May 2014, The Supreme Court of India ruled that Right to Education Act is not applicable to Minority institutions.^[16]

A critical development in 2011 has been the decision taken in principle to extend the right to education till Class X (age 16)^[17] and into the preschool age range.^[18] However, the government's more recent policy focus has been on the introduction of a new National Education Policy instead of an extension of the Act.

Status of implementation and funding

Significant achievements

The Right to Education (RTE) Act, implemented in India in 2010, made significant contributions to the country's education system. Major achievements include:

Increased Enrolment, reduced dropout and closure of gender gaps: Overall school enrolment reached 97.2% by 2018^[19] Similarly, there has been an increase in the enrolment of girls in primary and secondary education.

Improved Infrastructure: Stricter infrastructure norms led to better school facilities. For example, the proportion of schools with usable girls' toilets doubled to 66.4% by 2018^[20] Teacher recruitment and training was boosted, improving educational delivery.

Inclusion of Disadvantaged Groups: Over 3.3 million students were admitted under the 25% quota for economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups^[21]

Continued policy implementation gap

Despite successes, there is a large policy implementation gap. According to public estimates, 25.5% of schools are RTE meet all infrastructure norms based on UDISE+ 2019-20; Compliance rates range between 63.6% (Punjab) and a mere 1.3% in Meghalaya. Regularly updated RTE compliance data is no longer publicly available.^[22]

A report on the act's implementation status was released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on the one-year anniversary of the Act, and again till 2015. The report admits 1.7 million children from 6-14 remain out of school and 508,000 teacher shortage country-wide. A shadow report by the National RTE Forum, representing leading education networks, led by Ambarish Rai (a prominent activist), challenged the findings, pointing out several key legal commitment were behind schedule.[20] The Supreme Court of India intervened to demand implementation of the Act.[21] It has also provided the legal basis for ensuring pay parity between teachers in government and government aided schools[22]

Challenges to implementation

A major implementation obstacle is the state's failure to invest funds needed to improve the country's schools to the act's standards. India continues to spend under 4% of its GDP on education, below the globally agreed minimum for SDG 4 or EFA implementation. Education under the Indian constitution is a concurrent issue where both the centre and states can legislate. The states have been claim they lack financial capacity to deliver education of appropriate standards in all schools.^[23]

A committee studying the funding requirements estimated Rs 1710 billion or 1.71 trillion (US$38.2 billion) would be needed across five years. In April 2010 the central government agreed to share the needed funding at a 65:35 ratio between the centre and the states, and a 90:10 ratio for the north-eastern states.^[24] However, in mid-2010, this figure was upgraded to Rs. 2310 billion, and the central government agreed to raise its share to 68%.^[23] Despite this agreement, funding for education has remained low, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.^[25]

Inter-state variation

Implementation status varies across states. Haryana Government has assigned the duties and responsibilities to Block Elementary Education Officers–cum–Block Resource Coordinators (BEEOs-cum-BRCs) for effective implementation and continuous monitoring of implementation of the Right to Education Act in the State.^[26]

Criticism

The Act has been criticised for being hastily drafted,^[27] not consulting many groups active in education, inadequately focusing on improving the quality of education, infringing on rights of private and religious minority schools, and excluding children under six years of age.^[28] Furthermore, many of the ideas are seen as merely continuing existing government programmes: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the 2000s, and the earlier World Bank-funded District Primary Education Programme DPEP of the '90s. Both set up a number of schools in rural areas, but have been criticised for being ineffective^[29] and corruption-ridden.^[30]

Failing to provide universal standards of quality

The act has been criticised as discriminatory, by failing to provide uniform education quality standards across all of India's schools. Well-known educationist Anil Sadgopal said of the act:

It is a fraud on our children. It gives neither free education nor compulsory education. In fact it only legitimises the present multi-layered, inferior-quality school education system where discrimination shall continue to prevail.^[27]

Entrepreneur Gurcharan Das noted 54% of urban children attend private schools, and this rate is growing at 3% per year. "Even the poor children are abandoning the government schools. They are leaving because the teachers are not showing up."^[27] Other researchers countered, finding that the apparent evidence for higher achievement in private schools often disappears when other factors (like family income and parental literacy) are accounted for.

Public-private partnership

To address these quality issues, the Act has provisions compensating private schools for admission of children under the 25% quota. This has been compared to school vouchers, where parents may "send" their children to any school, private or public. This measure, along with the increase in PPP (Public Private Partnership) has been viewed by some organisations such as the All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIF-RTE), as the state abdicating its "constitutional obligation towards providing elementary education".^[29]

Critique from private schools

Given the inadequate financing for public education, education provided by the government school system is often poor quality, suffering from teacher and infrastructure gaps.^[31] There are also allegations of government schools being riddled with absenteeism, mismanagement, and appointments made on political convenience. ^{[citation needed]} Average schoolteacher salaries in private rural schools in some states (about Rs. 4,000 per month) are considerably lower than those in government schools.^[32] As a result, proponents of fees-charging low-cost private schools critique the government schools as being poor value for money. This criticism, ignores low standards in many low-fee schools, most being unrecognized for failing to adhere to quality standards. Being fee-charging, low fee private schools cannot enrol children from the poorest families. Proponents of private schools state that those children attending private schools are advantaged given caste and other forms of discrimination in government schools. However, these schools' existence are criticised for catering to rural elites who can afford school fees in a country where many families live in absolute poverty.

The Society for Un-aided Private Schools, Rajasthan (in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 95 of 2010) and 31 others pro-private school groups ^[33] petitioned the Supreme Court of India claiming that the act violates the constitutional right of private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.^[34] The parties claimed providing 25 percent reservation for disadvantaged children in government and private unaided schools was "unconstitutional".^[29]

On 12 April 2012, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered its 2-1 judgement. Chief Justice SH Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar held that the reservation is not unconstitutional but stated that the Act will not be applicable to private minority schools and boarding schools. However, Justice K. S. Panicker Radhakrishnan dissented, holding that the Act cannot apply to minority and non-minority private schools that do not receive aid from the government.^[35][36][37]

In September 2012, the Supreme Court declined a review petition on the Act.^[38]

Extensive case law exists on the issue in the states. In Tamil Nadu in May 2016, the Chetpet-based CBSE school Maharishi Vidya Mandir became embroiled in a scandal over its circumvention of the 25% quota rule.^[39] During its admissions cycle, the school told economically weaker parents "the RTE does not exist' and "we do not take these [government RTE] applications." The senior principal informed the Tamil Nadu Regional Director of the CBSE that he intended to "reject applicants without an email address", excluding technically illiterate parents from seeking admissions. In addition, school officials falsified the distance figures of several poorer candidates to disqualify them from the scheme.

In 2017, a public interest litigation was filed in the high courts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, seeking proper implementation of 25% quota in both states under the act. The high courts addressed the governments of both states to take necessary steps for the proper implementation of the act.^[40]

Barrier for orphans

The Act provides for the admission of children without any certification. However, several states have continued pre-existing procedures insisting that children produce income and caste certificates, BPL cards and birth certificates. Orphaned children are often unable to produce such documents, even when they are willing to do so.^[41]