However, the sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education which prepared the draft bill held this provision as a significant prerequisite for creating a democratic and egalitarian society.
[5][6] With this, India has moved forward to a rights-based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right as enshrined in the Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act.
[11] It received Presidential assent and was notified as law on 26 August 2009[12] as The Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act.
When adopting the Act, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated, "We are committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of gender and social category, have access to education.
'Free' means that no child 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.
Quality It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to pupil-teacher ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, and teacher-working hours.
It also provides for the prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.
Child friendly provisions It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition.
The 2019 amendment removed the "no-detention policy," allowing states to introduce examinations in Classes 5 and 8 and detain students who fail while mandating remedial instruction and re-examinations.
Thus, for example, the proportion of schools with usable girls' toilets doubled to 66.4% by 2018[20] Teacher recruitment and training have received a boost, improving educational delivery.
Thus, according to the last available estimates in the public domain, 25.5% of schools are RTE compliant in terms of meeting the entire set of infrastructure norms based on UDISE+ 2019-20; Compliance rates have ranged between 63.6% (Punjab) and a mere 1.3% in Meghalaya.
A shadow report by the National RTE Forum, representing the leading education networks in the country led by the late Ambarish Rai (a prominent activist), challenging the findings pointing out that several key legal commitments are falling behind schedule.
Well-known educationist Anil Sadgopal said of the act: Entrepreneur Gurcharan Das noted that 54% of urban children attend private schools, and this rate is growing at 3% per year.
"[26] However, other researchers have countered the argument by saying that the apparent evidence for higher learning levels in private schools often disappears when other factors (like family income and parental literacy) are accounted for.
95 of 2010) and 31 others pro-private school groups [32] petitioned the Supreme Court of India claiming that the act violates the constitutional right of private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.
[33] The parties claimed that providing 25 percent reservation for disadvantaged children in government and private unaided schools was "unconstitutional".
However, Justice K. S. Panicker Radhakrishnan dissented with the majority view and held that the Act cannot apply to minority and non-minority private schools that do not receive aid from the government.
Thus, in Tamil Nadu in May 2016, the Chetpet-based CBSE school Maharishi Vidya Mandir became embroiled in a scandal over its circumvention of the 25% quota rule.
The senior principal also informed the Tamil Nadu Regional Director of the CBSE that he intended to "reject applicants without an email address" and so excluded technically illiterate parents from seeking admissions.
In 2017, A public interest litigation was filed in the high courts of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, seeking proper implementation of 25% quota in both states under RTE Act.