In the development of an individual education plays a vital role. Education is also a key factor that helps in building a stable life. Not just the individual but the country also, it is said that the future of the country is being made in the classrooms. Aristotle once said,” Fate of the empire depends on the education of youth.” Since education is so important then it becomes the objective of the country to provide education to the citizens, more importantly to children in their prime age so that they can build their careers. Also, education is the way to eradicate poverty and social injustice and superstitions. All the students pursuing Law must understand the concept of the Right to education in order to take steps in helping children and the country further in the initiative of having educated youth in order to make progress.
Not just the Law aspirants but all citizens of India must be aware of the efforts made by the government now as well as in the past after independence to understand the importance of this right and the privilege it provides. Several free online legal certification courses in India provide information related to the Right to education in order to help learners to realize the need for education in India.
History of Right to Education
Post-independence the condition of the education system was dreadful, the ratio of literate and illiterate people was beyond rectification and at that time Country was in dire need of intellect in order to reestablish the foundation of the nation. Keeping this in mind the maker of the constitution by giving the proper attention to this topic included an Article in the IVth part of the Constitution which contains the Directive principle of State policy, this article is Article 45 “ Right to education”. This article contains a provision according to which is free and compulsory education for children between 0 to 14 years. At that time Country’s condition was not good and they could not provide free education to all, so they added this article to DPSP. But after decades of hard work and efforts the country's economic system was established. Later on, in the 83 Amendment Act, 2002, the Right to education was added in Part III of the constitution which contains Fundamental rights as Article 21 A. It says that its States duty is to provide free and compulsory education for children between 6 to 14 years. Also in this very amendment Article 51A was added and Article 45 was amended. Article 51A was the Fundamental duty of every Indian citizen. Under Article 45, the education got replaced with early child care and education. History related to rights and duty of education becomes an essential part of the basic foundation of studies for every law aspirant and in order to help them make their base strong, many platforms provide online legal certification courses based on these subjects.
Right to education as Duty
Later, the Right to Education was added in Article 51 A as Fundamental Duty in Part IVth of the Indian Constitution in 86 Amendment Act, 2002. These fundamental duties act as a moral obligation for Indian citizens. These states that every Parent/Guardian should provide an opportunity for education to their 6 to 14 years old children. This duty was added by keeping in mind the economic condition of the people below the poverty line as it can be difficult for them to provide education to their ward as higher education is little costly. But at the very same time the government has also made the state bound to provide education to the children till 14 years for free.
Hurdles in Right to education:
There were several obstacles faced by the government in order to implement this provision to provide education to children as initially there were not many resources available also the first priority for the government was to eradicate social, political and economical inequality. There were other problems also like;
Social issue
Economical issue
Political issue
Administrative issue
Geographical issues
One can go deeper into these issues as these problems were quite serious at that time of development and are an essential part of education in the form of Case studies for law aspirants. Many platforms providing online law certification courses offer classes on these subjects to help students understand the need behind every law, article and provision.
Right to Education Act, 2009
Article 21A was implemented as the Right to Education Act 2009. This Act with effect came into force on 1 April 2010. After the 7 years of the Amendment, the privilege of free education was given to children through this act. Several guidelines were enacted under this act which have to be followed by parents as well as school or educational institutions and the state has to take responsibility to make sure that rules are being followed and if not then necessary actions must be taken. Some of the guidelines are as follows:
Free education for children in nearby schools from age of 6 to 14 years, these are not just concerned with school fees but also includes transportation, lunch, books, and uniform. All these will be provided by the government.
Compulsory education for Students, includes enrolment in school, continuity of education and completion of education.
The Right To Education Act talks about elementary education, which means education up till class 8.
This act mandates that at least 25% of seats in private schools or institutions must be reserved for economically weak students to ensure that there is access to education.
To ensure the quality of education the act says that Teacher People Ratio is fixed to how many students per teacher. This ratio is 30:1, 30 students per teacher, which ensures that the teacher will give proper attention to each student.
This act also mandates the qualification of teachers, there should be a degree of teaching.
No Detention Policy is implemented for all students. This policy states that all children must be passed. But, in order to improve the learning outcome of children, it was removed from the act.
There are more features in this Act, one can understand them deeply with the help of the courses provided by the best online law certification courses platforms which are helping students to understand the concepts related to law and their relevance in the present time.
In order to take full advantage of the privilege of education given to the citizens, they have to completely understand the importance of education. There are various parts of India where women are not allowed to pursue education, or where parents are too poor to provide proper education to their child, increasing population is also one of the reasons that education has become so hard to achieve. But to rectify all these, the Indian government is launching many schemes. There are many NGOs which are providing educational opportunities to poor children. There are several international organizations that are promoting education on an international level such as UNESCO, UNICEF, and many others. As Swami Vivekanand had quoted,” All the wealth of the world cannot help one little village if the people are not taught to help themselves. Our work should be mainly educational both moral and intellectual.”
