The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act, enacted by the nation’s Parliament on August 4, 2009, describing the modalities and importance of Free and Compulsory education for children between the age of 6 and 14 years in the country under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution, joining 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child, being implemented in fits and jerks, as in Karnataka, has reportedly left a bewildering number of children in the State out of school. The central point of the historic policy is that “Free Education” means no child, other than a child who has been admitted by the respective parents to a school which is not supported by the Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. “Compulsory Education” casts an obligation on the Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education. Schools are required to set apart 25 percent of their intake for children under the Act. The fallout during the years of action under the Act doesn’t portray that all is well with the target sections of the child population.
The land’s urban population, being a mix of parents who have the wherewithal to send their children to schools of their rating and the rest, neither having income enough to meet the costs of educating their children nor believing in sending their children to schools, doesn’t seem to be in a happier position than their rustic counterparts.
