Demand to bring the Right to Education Bill

New Delhi, Jul 20: Activists from a dozen states are assembling here to press for Common School System (CSS) and introduction of a pro-people Right to Education Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, that begins next week.

Addressing a press conference, former Foreign Secretary Prof Muchkund Dubey, well-known educationist Prof Anil Sadgopal and activists Pratibha Shinde and Ambarish Rai said the government was duty bound to fulfill the constitutional obligation of Right to Education for 6-14 year age group of children, which has been declared a fundamental right through the 86th Constitutional Amendment in 2002.

Mr Dubey said the government should also give a fresh look at the Kothari Commission's proposal of a CSS and review of the so called Model Right to Education Bill, 2006 to achieve this aim.

Only then would India be able to expand its knowledge base and harness the potential talent and merit of more than two-thirds of its people, suppressed since independence by denial of education of equitable quality, he added.

They pointed out that the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government had promised to fulfill the need by spending 6 per cent of the GDP on education but the expenditure on education, as percentage of GDP, had declined to less than 3.5 per cent in 2005-06 - a lower level than that achieved in 1985.

Ms Shinde, who works on tribal rights, pointed towards the poor state of education system in tribal areas. She reiterated that the tribals were suffering due to non functional situation of government schools and lack of accessibility of quality education and schools mainly due to inadequate expenditure on Education by the government.

Mr Rai, Convenor of the People's Campaign for CSS (PCCSS), said more than 50 per cent of the children in the 6-14 year age group were out of school. Only 7-8 per cent of the relevant age group are able to access higher education.

''A deliberate policy to demolish the vast government school system, which the poor can afford, has been practiced since the New Economic Policy was enunciated in 1991, to begin with, through World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education Programme and later through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

''The 11th Plan's proposal to institute a Voucher System and extend SSA to the secondary stage will complete the process and lay the foundation for a completely privatised, anti-child and anti-poor system,'' he opined.

The PCCSS would organise a dharna on the issue where activists from 12 states, leaders of the Left and other democratic parties, teachers' and students' organisations, trade unions and various mass organisations are expected to join, Mr Rai informed.

UNI