April.02 : It has been delayed, but it has at last arrived. April 1, 2010 will be remembered as the historic day when the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 kicked in. The Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in our Constitution had visualised such a law to take effect within 10 years of the founding of the republic — that is 1960. Clearly, we are half a century behind schedule. It is likely that the founding fathers were starry-eyed and idealistic and had not done the sums, for the stumbling block in making education available to all children is the expense.
To give an idea of what this means, back in 1999 the Tapas Majmdar Committee had envisaged an expenditure of Rs 1, 37,000 crores over a 10-year period to secure free and compulsory education for children. A few years later, the 11th Five-Year Plan allocated Rs 2,75,000 crores for education, of which a good chunk was to be claimed by school-level learning. As the law became effective on Thursday, the Finance Commission has given Rs 25,000 crores to the states to implement the new legislation. The Centre has approved an outlay of Rs 15,000 crores for 2010-2011 for the purpose. Even adjusting for inflation and population growth over the past 50 years, equivalent sums were perhaps out of India’s reach to enable all children to go to school in 1960. Fortunately, India is today able to command the resources that may help it ensure that all children are able to get quality education, which will emancipate them and make them fit for higher productivity as economic agents. This is truly a great leap forward. It means that the entitlement of every child in the country between the ages of six and 14 to be in school in a class appropriate to his/her age, and to receive quality education, has been recognised.
Since a very large number of children in this group never go to school or drop out early as they must work in the vast informal sector to supplement family incomes (including sometimes by begging), the implication of the compulsory education law is that circumstances will be created for poor people to earn enough to run their family so that a child need not be obliged to work and attend school instead for the desired number of years. Seen in this light, we are looking at the possibility of a veritable revolution. In the words of human resources development minister Kapil Sibal, this is our “tryst with destiny” moment in the field of education. But surely it is more, for that tryst can be kept only if all children are freed of the burden to work to add to their family earnings. Government estimates indicate that there are 92 lakh children in the country who have never been to school or have dropped out (mainly due to family pressures), although they are all officially enrolled in schools.
Mr Sibal noted in a newspaper article that our gross enrolment data reveal over 100 per cent children are in school; that 98 per cent of our habitations have a primary school within the range of a kilometre, and that 92 per cent of them have an upper primary school not more than 3 km away. And yet, there are the “invisible” children. This tells us something about the extensive scope of the work that remains to be done. This is without questioning the figure of 92 lakh thought to be out of school. Such a number suggests that the kids missing from the education process are less than one per cent of our population. On the face of it, this appears to be an under-estimate. Nevertheless, it will not do to cavil now. The gaps will doubtless have to be fixed in time. For now, a small hurrah is in order.