Bill for Right to Education
Rajya Sabha
The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, notified on 13th December, 2002, inserts Article 21A in the Constitution, which provides that “the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”. Section 1(2) of the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act provides that ‘it shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint’. The notification has not yet been issued pending enactment of the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21A. A draft Model Right to Education Bill, 2006 was formulated and circulated for comments of the States/UTs. The comments from 23 States/UTs have been received.
The main objections raised by the States and UTs relate to:
1. Proposed replacement of the Central Legislation by a Model Bill for State Legislation.
2. Linkage of SSA funding with State/UT enactment of Model Right to Education Bill or modification of existing State/UT Acts.
3. Making elementary education first charge on revenues of each State Government, next only to law and order.
4. Financial liability for free and compulsory education to be borne by the States/UTs.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shri M.A.A.Fatmi in a written reply to a question raised by Smt. Shobhana Bhartia and Smt. Supriya Sule in Rajya Sabha today.
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HB/SB/SB/rs1559
(Release ID :30583)