NCPCR recommended for minority schools be brought under RTE

Context

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) released a report entitled- “Impact of Exemption under Article 15 (5) with regards to Article 21A of the Constitution of India on Education of Children in Minority Communities’’. In its report, it supported the inclusion of minority schools under the RTE.

About the exemption of minority schools from RTE and SSA

• Minority schools are exempted Right to Education policy and do not fall under the government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
  • In 2002, the 86th Amendment provided the Right to Education as a fundamental right.
  • It also inserted Article 21A, which made the RTE a fundamental right for the children aged between six and 14 years.
• In 2006, the 93rd Constitution Amendment Act inserted Clause (5) in Article 15 that enabled State to create special provisions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in all aided or unaided educational institutes. It exempted the minority educational institutes.
• In a 2012 amendment, the institutions which imparts religious education were exempted from RTE Act.
  • Article 30 of the Constitution states the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, with a view to provide opportunities to children from different religious and linguistic minority communities to have and conserve a distinct culture, script and language.
• In,2014,Pramatijudgement the Supreme Court declared the RTE Act inapplicable for the schools with minority status and said that the Act should not interfere with right of minorities to establish and to administer institutions of their choice.

Key findings of the report

• The Commission said that the two different sets of rules one in Article 21A that guarantees fundamental right of education to all children, and Article 30 that allows minorities to set up their own institutions, are creating a conflicting picture between the fundamental right of children and right of minority communities.
• Many children enrolled in these institutions or schools were not able to enjoy the entitlements because the institution they are studying in is exempted and is enjoying the rights of minority institutions.
• These schools are admitting only a certain class of students and leav underprivileged children out of the system. This is becoming what the Commission has called “cocoons populated by elites’’.
• In particular madarasas, have become “ghettos of underprivileged students languishing in backwardness’’ says the Commission.
• Only 4.18% of total students received benefits such as freeships, free uniforms and books, scholarships, etc. from school.
• It devoid them the basic minimum infrastructure, number of teachers, books, uniform, Mid-day Meal etc.