Co-authored by Lenin Raghuvanshi:
“Knowing how to read is knowing how to walk. Knowing how to write is knowing how to ascend. Feet, arms, wings, all these are given to man by his first and most humble schoolbooks.” – Jose Marti, 19th century Latin American thinker, poet and revolutionary.
Education is the primary vehicle through which marginalised individuals and communities lift themselves from the vicious circle of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully within the societal structure. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, inserted Article 21-A in the Indian Constitution to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to 14 years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine.
The government of India passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009. The act came into force on April 1, 2010 with a provision for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to 14 years. From the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights to the Constitution of India, emphasis has been given on providing affordable and accessible education to all the children, so that they can attain a better life.
The right to education is a fundamental human right. The access to education is also required for the promotion and protection of all human rights. Adopted on September 26, 1924, by the League of Nations, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child states: “The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of fellow men.” It further states: “The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948) talks about education as a fundamental human right. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that:
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
The right to education is also an integral part of UNESCO’s constitutional mandate. The organisation’s constitution expresses its belief in “[f]ull and equal educational opportunities for all.” The Dakar Framework for Action, Education for all: Meeting our Collective Commitments (adopted by the World Economic Forum, Senegal, April 26-April 28, 2000) committed governments to strengthening national and regional mechanisms to ensure that Education for All was on the agenda of every national legislature. It also emphasised that at the national level, concrete measures are to be taken so that the legal foundations of the right to education are strengthened in national systems.
In the UN Millennium Declaration (adopted in September 2000), states agreed to try their best to eradicate poverty, promote human dignity and equality and, thereby, achieve peace, democracy and environmental sustainability. The international community committed, in the Millennium Development Goals, to cut extreme poverty by half by 2015 and banish it by 2025. The international community has set a target that by 2015, children everywhere – both boys and girls – will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) provides the most wide-ranging and comprehensive articles on the right to education in international human rights law. Articles 13 and 14 of the ICESCR have the most wide-ranging and comprehensive descriptions on the right to education.
Article 13 says:
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this right:
(a) Primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all;
(b) Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational secondary education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;
(c) Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;
(d) Fundamental education shall be encouraged or intensified as far as possible for those persons who have not received or completed the whole period of their primary education;
(e) The development of a system of schools at all levels shall be actively pursued, an adequate fellowship system shall be established, and the material conditions of teaching staff shall be continuously improved.
3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to choose for their children schools, other than those established by the public authorities, which conform to such minimum educational standards as may be laid down or approved by the State and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.
4. No part of this article shall be construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles set forth in paragraph I of this article and to the requirement that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State.
Article 14 states:
Each State Party to the present Covenant which, at the time of becoming a Party, has not been able to secure in its metropolitan territory or other territories under its jurisdiction compulsory primary education, free of charge, undertakes, within two years, to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action for the progressive implementation, within a reasonable number of years, to be fixed in the plan, of the principle of compulsory education free of charge for all.
The Special Rapporteur on the right to education sets out four essential features that schools should exhibit – availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability.
The Constitution of India has put education in the concurrent list, which means that the responsibility for this is shared between the central and the state governments. The central government formulates broad policies and guidelines for curricula and management practices through consultation with the states and the union territories. States are free to frame their own policies within the broad national framework. But, even though education is in the concurrent list in the Constitution, the provision, funding and regulation of education is primarily the responsibility of the state governments.
The right to education is implicit in the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India. Furthermore, in 2009, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, was passed by the parliament.
The RTE Act provides the following:
1. Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school.
2. It clarifies that ‘compulsory education’ means the obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to 14 age group. ‘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.
3. It makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age appropriate class.
4. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of appropriate governments, the local authority and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and the sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the central and state governments.
5. It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours.
6. It provides for the rational deployment of teachers by ensuring that the specified pupil teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just as an average for the State or District or Block – thus ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in teacher postings. 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.
7. It provides for the appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.
8. It prohibits
(a) Physical punishment and mental harassment.
(b) Screening procedures for the admission of children.
(c) Capitation fee.
(d) Private tuition by teachers.
(e) Running of schools without recognition.
9. It provides for the development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, which will ensure the all-round development of the child, build on the child’s knowledge, potentiality and talent and making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child-friendly and child-centred learning.
The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, says, “Education will be used as an agent of basic change in the status of woman. In order to neutralise the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be a well-conceived edge in favour of women. The National Education System will play a positive, interventionist role in the empowerment of women. It will foster the development of new values through redesigned curricula, textbooks, the training and orientation of teachers, decision-makers and administrators, and the active involvement of educational institutions. This will be an act of faith and social engineering. […] The removal of women’s illiteracy and obstacles inhibiting their access to, and retention in, elementary education will receive overriding priority, through provision of special support services, setting of time targets, and effective monitoring.”
The sex ratio in India has been consistently low due to various reasons. Sons are given preference and a girl child is often valued lower than the boys. The neglect of the girl child results in a higher mortality rate at a young age. Then, there are issues like higher childhood mortality, female infanticide, lineage issues, the patriarchal structure, old age security and low sex ratio at birth. The reasons vary from state to state.
The performance of states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in improving the sex ratio hasn’t been good. According to the 2001 census, Rajasthan had a sex ratio of 921 which increased to 928 in 2011. In Uttar Pradesh, the sex ratio was 898 in 2001 – it slightly improved to become 912 in 2011. For Punjab, it was 876 in 2001 – and in 2011, it became 895. The sex ratio of Haryana was 861 in 2001 – in 2011, it became 879.
One of the biggest factors holding back India’s progress is its high level of illiteracy, especially when it comes to women. Despite several attempts at educational reforms by the government, the most recent census (2011) reports that overall adult literacy is at 74.04% – 82.14% among males and 65.46% for females. This information clearly illustrates the dramatic disparity in the literacy levels between genders, amounting to a gap of 16.68%. The situation is even worse for women living in rural areas.
The low level of literacy among women has been connected to a variety of social, economic and health issues, including malnourishment, high levels of fertility, high infant mortality, low earning potential, and a subordinate status within the household and the larger community. It has also been seen that illiteracy limits modernisation and efforts at economic development by preventing a large portion of the population from participating in educational and career opportunities that would help them utilise their potential to the fullest.
India is a populous country with vast differences in economic resources, social hierarchies, and cultural traditions across states. Rajasthan has one of the lowest literacy rates (a total of 66.11% – with a male literacy rate of 79.19 % and a female literacy rate of 52.12 % ). Haryana has a slightly better performance on this indicator (an aggregate score of 75.55 % – with a male literacy rate of 84.06 % and a female literacy rate of 65.94 % in 2011). Punjab’s literacy rate was 75.84 % in 2011 – 80.44 % for males and 70.73 % for females. Uttar Pradesh has a 67.68 % literacy rate – 77.28 % for males and 57.18 % for females.
Cultural practices play a part an important in determining the enrolment and retention of girls in education institutions. Boys are often seen as having the greatest potential to provide for the family when their parents are old. Thus, they are allowed to go to school much more than girls.
Other barriers to education for both boys and girls include:
1. A lack of adequate school facilities.
2. Unavailability of good schools in close vicinity.
3. Untrained or teachers with lesser skills.
4. Affordability.
Studies have argued that the negative attitude of parents towards girls and their education is one of the major reasons for the low female literacy rate in India. In most families, boys at home are given priority in terms of education, with the girls often not being treated in the same way. It would seen that in such families, right from the beginning, parents do not consider girls to be potential earning members of their family, because after their marriage, they have to leave their parents’ home. So, spending on their education is just considered as a wastage of money and time. Due to this reason, many parents prefer to send boys, and not girls, to schools.
Poverty is also a cause for many problems in India, including that of a low female literacy rate. More than a third of India’s population lives below the poverty line. Though the government is putting in efforts to make primary education free, many families are still not ready to send their girls to school. This is especially true if the schools are located at a far distance from their villages or homes.
As per the RTE Act, 2009, it is the duty of the appropriate government and local authority to ensure that children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing their elementary education. The act defines what “disadvantaged” means, but at the same time, it provides scope for further additions to the definitions under the rules. It also states that the appropriate government and local authority shall establish a school within a neighbourhood where it has not been established, within a period of three years.
Our experience and several studies have shown that children with disabilities, children from internally-displaced communities and migrant families, and children coming under the juvenile justice system need to be specifically included in the process of the enactment of the RTE Act – so as to protect their right to non-discriminatory treatment and their right to receive education in mainstream schools. Practitioners like Shantha Sinha have argued that it is important to bring in the discussions on the rights of children to the public sphere. For this, an atmosphere of complacence is required – and it is a democratic act.
There are questions of social power structures as well as social and cultural hierarchies involved in the process of providing education to underprivileged children. At the same time, it is also a discussion on exploitation, profound suffering, denial of rights and the ethics of building a societal and economic system at the expense of a childhood.
Under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, states have prescribed the establishment of either community bodies (like village education committees) or user groups (parent-teacher associations in Madhya Pradesh or school development and monitoring committees in Karnataka) for implementing and monitoring programs to universalise elementary education.
According to a World Bank research report based on six countries, 25% of the teachers in government primary schools absent themselves from work on any given day. Only 50% of those present in schools are actually engaged in teaching. Teacher absenteeism also leads to student absenteeism, the report added.
A report prepared by Human Rights Watch in 2015 (titled “Millions of Indian children are being denied school education due to discrimination”) gives us many points to ponder upon. Ideally, education should lead to liberation. However, given the current scenario, it is necessary to understand the complexities and challenges inequality poses and how it affects the future of India.
In 2015, at a public hearing called by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), 10-year-old Madhu, a Musahar Dalit, revealed how she had been chased away from the government school in Patna, after being called ‘dirty’. In this public hearing, dozens of parents and children from marginalised communities gathered to share their grievances. The NCPCR intervened and enrolled 50 Dalit children from slums in an adjoining government school.
The reports and interventions say that access to education alone is insufficient. More efforts are needed to keep marginalised children in school and ensure learning by providing quality education. Despite the enactment of the RTE Act and schemes like the midday meal scheme (which provides lunch to school-going children), the dropout rates are very high. Approximately two-fifth of the students leave school before completing elementary education. Government estimates say that around 6 million children between 6-13 are supposedly out of school due to various reasons.
There’s a huge amount of data which highlight the challenges in access to education for all. This paper was an attempt to provide a detailed description of the RTE Act, different treaties and a few challenges India has – with regards to access to education.
However, we must not forget that as time passes, there will be newer demographic challenges for India. Hence, it is clear that we need a multifaceted approach on ground to counter these challenges – not just another law or a few more treaties.
Ashish Kumar Singh is a doctoral candidate at the Higher School of Economics – The National Research University, Moscow, Russia. He can be reached at ashish.tiss@gmail.com.
Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi is one of the founding members and CEO of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR). He can be reached at lenin@pvchr.asia.