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Centre subverting right to education Bill, says SFI leader

Staff Reporter

Union Government failed to enact the legislation

KANNUR: All-India general secretary of the Students Federation of India K.K. Ragesh has accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government of moves to subvert the right to education Bill.

He said in a statement here that though the 86th Constitution amendment, which ensures free and compulsory education as a fundamental right for all children in the age group of 6-14 years was passed in 2002 the Central Government failed to enact the legislation to implement the constitutional mandate. A draft of the Bill was prepared in 2003 itself, he added.

Recalling that the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the UPA Government promised universal access to quality basic education and raising of public spending in education to at least six per cent of the GDP with at least half the amount being spent on primary and secondary sectors, Mr. Ragesh said that these crucial commitments of the Government were yet to be fulfilled.

The Government's decision not to enact the Central legislation on Right to Education citing lack of resources to implement it amounted to a violation of the NCMP, he said.

Mr. Ragesh said that the Central Government's proposal that the cost sharing on implementing the legislation be contingent upon the State Governments' acceptance in toto of the model Bill prepared by the Human Resources Development Ministry was unjustified as the State Governments were already bearing the lion's share of expenditure on education.

The proposal was a recipe for subverting the right to education, he said.

The SFI leader said that the model Bill had further diluted many of the crucial provisions made in the 2005 draft Bill.

The draft Bill provision of reserving at least 25 per cent free seats for poor children in private schools had been abandoned, he said adding that the entire section on the Central Government's responsibility in the draft Bill had also been deleted.

Accusing the UPA Government of moves to evade its constitutional obligation of ensuring right to education, Mr. Ragesh said that the UPA Government was making its continuing assistance to the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan conditional upon the State Governments' acceptance of the proposed Bill in toto.

The SFI would organise country-wide protests demanding withdrawal of the model Bill for the State Government and enactment of the Central legislation to ensure right to education, he said.

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