Free Education Bill tabled by Indian Parliament
The Indian Parliament on July 20 has passed a landmark education bill that guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged between six and fourteen. This move by the government of India holds promise of educating a large percentage of young India.
Over the last few decades, the government of India has commissioned various programs aimed at bringing more children under the education bracket. Mid day meals, free distribution of ration, books and uniforms are some of the incentives planned by the government to get more children to school. However, no legal action was taken to make elementary education compulsory, a gap that is now being filled by the bill passed by the lower house. It now needs presidential asset to become law- just a formality say correspondents.
The bill entails new state-run schools to be set up and also have the private schools reserve at least one quarter of their seats for the poor. This should accommodate education of a large portion of the 70 million children who at present receive no education. The bill also seeks to empower disabled children through education. The government plans to set up separate schools for them as well as educate them through other private schools.
Achieving universal education is one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to be met by the year 2015 and India has already taken its first step towards contributing to the cause by passing this free education bill.
Though the bill seems to have ambitious plans critics have pointed out at the disparity between goal setting and money allotment here, since it is not clear how the government plans to fund this. Plus, by making education compulsory from the age of 6, the focus on early development of the child has been neglected.
Bottom line, the bill is a ray of hope in dawning a new era of education in India. However, the route government takes in implementing it effectively is something that only time will tell.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8184779.stm
Related articles:
- PPP to infuse quality education in Government schools In a historic move towards the betterment of education in government schools, The HRD ministry...
- UID numbers to be implemented into Right To Education With the proposed implementation of UID into the Right to Education policy, another purpose of...
- Right to Education comes with a price tag of Rs.1.78 lakh crore The Right to Education Act has brought much delight to the poor who are looking...
Like this post? Subscribe to our 
RSS feed or get updates via email.
Leave your response!