"An idle mind is the devil's workshop.

" In the absence of hopes & goals, one becomes a victim

of adverse circumstances, deprived of the greatest opportunity in society. What helps in
reigniting hope in and in inspiring people? Education.

It is a form of learning wherein the knowledge, skills, culture, customs, languages of a group are
transferred from one generation to the next, through teaching, training, or research. Any
experience that affects the way people think, feel or act can be considered educational. Education
is an indispensable part of one's life, something that everyone should be entitled to since birth. It
contributes to realizing one's full potential and holistic development, thus boosting self-
confidence. It shapes a person's sense of identity and enables them to have meaningful
interaction with others and makes individuals worthy of contributing to their nation's economy.
In 17th century Europe, parents and the church took over the responsibility of education and the
state played its part in ensuring that the parents complied with this duty. However, the right to
education wasn't given legal status. The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the inclusion of
educational rights in domestic bills of rights, though the state wasn't obliged to set up educational
institutions. The 1936 Soviet Constitution was the first one to recognize the right to education
with the state having a corresponding obligation to offer such education. The constitution
guaranteed free and compulsory education at all levels, a system of state scholarships, and
vocational training in state enterprises. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights 1948, gave universal acknowledgment to the right to education. It announces that
everyone has the right to education wherein elementary and fundamental education shall be free
and compulsory. This induced a significant change in the approach and opinion towards
education. Amendments to the constitution of India have been made to safeguard the right to
education to all the citizens in light of this global principle. The 86th Amendment Act, 2002,
makes three exact provisions in the constitution to provide free and compulsory education to
children between age 6 and 14 as a fundamental right.

Growing concern towards the question of quality and the inefficiency in retention particularly of
the un-reached children were amongst the reasons for this change.

 Article 21A in Part 3 was added which gave every child the right to full-time elementary
education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school.
 Article 45 (in which the state took it upon itself to provide for the aforementioned within
10 years from the commencement of the constitution) was modified.
 an additional clause (k) under Article 51A (fundamental duties) was added making
parents or guardians responsible for the same.

After almost seven years following this amendment, RTE Act 2009 received presidential assent
on 26 August 2009. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of
every child when the Act came into force on 1 April 2010.

The salient features of the RTE ACT are:

 Every child of India, of age 6-14 years, has a right to free and compulsory primary
education in a neighbourhood school.
 It provides for the admission of a non-admitted or a dropped out child to a class of his/her
appropriate age.
  Private educational institutions are required to reserve 25% of the seats for children
belonging to economically weaker and disadvantaged sections of society.
 Private educational institutions have to meet recognition requirements by following the
specified standards & norms; failing which a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh will be charged and
they shall be prohibited from practice.
 It makes provisions for no donations or capitation fees as well as no interview of the
child/parent at the time of admission.
 The age of a child for admission shall be determined based on a certificate issued under
the Births, Deaths, and Marriages Registration Act, 1856.
 The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and state
commissions will monitor the implementation of the Act.
 The child's mother tongue as a medium of instruction and a comprehensive and
continuous evaluation system of the child's performance will be employed.
 It specifies standards and norms for Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTR), infrastructure and
buildings, working days of the school, and for the teachers.
 Financial burdens will be shared by the centre and the state governments in the ratio of
55:45.

Many various initiatives like Five-year plans, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Mid-Day Meal
Scheme, Rashtriya Madhmayak Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) were launched by the central
government to promote universalization of primary education before the RTE Act.

The Indian constitution also had provisions to facilitate the functioning of the education system
such as Article 28-30, 45-46, 377, 350A&B, 351 enlisting equality of opportunity& religious
freedom in educational institutions, provisions for the minority, instruction in the mother tongue,
etc.

Right to education was produced under Article 21 in 1978 in the case of Ananda Vardhan
Chandel v. Delhi University. The division bench of the supreme court in the case of Mohini
Jain in 1992, popularly known as "capitation fee case" stated that: "The right to education flows
directly from right to life. The right to life under Article 21 and the dignity of an individual are
not being assured unless they're accompanied by the right to education. The state is under an
obligation to provide educational facilities at all levels to its citizens".

Supreme Court observed the accuracy of the verdict given by the court in Mohini Jain in the case
of Unnikrishnan. The five Judges bench by 3-2 majority held that the right to education is a
fundamental right under Article 21 of the constitution.

T. M. A. Pai Foundation v. the state of Karnataka held that the state governments can't regulate
the admission policy of unaided educational institutions run by linguistic and religious
minorities.

The gap between promises and performances points out to the debt we owe to millions of
children- whose right to education we should but often don't defend, has grown much better now
than it was in the 1960s.