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Minority schools wont teach minority poor : RTE Judgement

Every child in India should have a fundamental right to basic
education. With this laudable aim the 86th Amendment of the
Constitution was introduced by adding Section A to Article 21 in
our Constitution in 2002 during the NDA regime. The idea was mooted
originally by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the NDA HRD Minister.
Although the Amendment was introduced in 2002 the NDA government
went down subsequently and it took almost 5 years for the UPA
government to bring a legislation in line with Art 21 A and make
the right of children to free and compulsory education a reality.
Thus in 2009 came the new act – “Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act – 2009” (RTE Act in brief).
It is a known fact in our country that there is a
huge disparity when it comes to educational opportunities for the
children of the poor, the middle class and the rich. While the rich
and even the middle class have ample options to choose in the form
of public schools, residential schools, convents etc the children
of the poor and low-income families have little choice in the
education of their child. The dysfunctional government school
system or some charities are their only refuge.
Over the decades very little success has been achieved in improving
our government-sponsored school system. Conditions in government
schools remain pathetic despite grandiose plans and infusion of
huge funds. While the world of basic education, along with that of
secondary and higher education, is undergoing tremendous
transformation with newer methods and tools being introduced the
government schools lack even the basic amenities like good
teachers, electricity, buildings etc. Teaching tools like computers
are a distant dream.
No wonder the literacy rates in our country remains hovering around
73-74% even according to the 2011 census figures. 26% illiterates
means there are almost 300 million illiterates in our country. That
makes India the land of world’s largest illiterate population.
In that context RTE Act is a commendable initiative. It is also
commendable that the Act envisaged a role for private educational
institutions also in delivering this social responsibility of
making every Indian child literate. Under the Act all educational
institutions providing primary education – public and private,
aided and unaided alike – have been obligated to reserve 25% seats
for the children of the poor and underprivileged. And every child
in the age group of 6 to 14 is extended a right to free primary
education.
No doubt there will certain difficulties with regard to
implementation of this noble scheme. I am reminded of a scheme
introduced in Andhra Pradesh in the 80s by the then Chief Minister
Mr. N.T. Rama Rao. Under that scheme all hotels in the state have
been ordered to sell eatables at the rates prescribed by the
government. The idea was to make food available for poor people at
affordable prices. Price and quantity of each item was prescribed
by the government – a couple of idlis with given weight should be
sold for Rs. 2. Initially everybody was happy about the
affordability. But soon the hoteliers came up with a novel scheme.
They announced two sets of menus in the same hotel – one for the
government products and the other for the normal products. In a way
it led to a class division in the same hotel.
The new education scheme too is fraught with such implementation
related hiccups. If the children of the poor and the rich go to
same school how will they mingle? Will it end class divisions in
our society at the child level or it will lead to introduction of
class divisions in classrooms itself? Right from the uniform they
wear to food they carry to stationary they use how would the
children of the poor and the rich mingle with each other well is a
question to be addressed when the time comes. In any case every
effort for social transformation is fraught with some such minor
hiccups and I am sure that sooner than later the situation will
change and we would be able to create a more egalitarian atmosphere
in the society by imparting those values at the primary education
level itself.
But no one can deny that the private educational institutions too
have a responsibility in educating the poor of the country. It is
unfortunate that these institutions, for various reasons, decided
to oppose the RTE Act. Not all wanted to shirk their social
responsibility; many have other concerns like government’s
unwarranted interference in their functioning through this Act
etc.
It is heartening that the Supreme Court through a
3-Judge Constitutional Bench upheld the RTE Act and mandated that
all the institutions – public and private, aided and unaided alike
– must provide 25% seats for the children of the SC & ST and other
underprivileged sections of the society. The Court also mandated
that the RTE Act should come into being in this academic year
itself. That means the state governments have to urgently frame the
rules for the implementation of this Act.
However the SC judgment disappoints on one count. While the Central
Government wanted all educational institutions to share this
responsibility of educating our children the Supreme Court exempts
the unaided Minority institutions from that social obligation. One
of the three learned judges held that all the private institutions
must be excluded from the RTE Act purview. However the majority of
the Bench differed and said that only the unaided Minority
institutions will be excluded and they need not provide 25% for
poor children. The learned judges arrived at that conclusion on a
very technical and hence contestable ground that such a provision
will change the ‘basic character’ of the institution. The Supreme
Court is expected to go beyond technicalities take the spirit of
the Constitution into account.
Even this premise that the ‘basic character’ of the minority
institutions will change if they implement the RTE Act is debatable
because the character of the minority institution is derived from
the management – which according to law should have majority
members from minority community – and not from the children who
study there. In fact a large number of minority institutions have
students from non-minority communities in majority.
The learned judges of the Supreme Court have fallen back on the
usual argument that Art 29 and 30 of our Constitution provide
certain immunity to minority institutions. Art 29 and 30 have been
incorporated in our Constitution as ‘educational and cultural
rights of the minorities’. And the RTE Act also wants to uphold the
right of children to education. Then how can it be pitted against
those articles? At the most the Court should have said that the
unaided minority institutions should provide 25% seats to the poor
and underprivileged among the minorities. To exempt them from this
social responsibility completely under the garb of Art 29 & 30 is
an incorrect decision that needs to be challenged at an appropriate
forum.
This also brings up the insensitivity and irresponsibility of the
minority institutions to the fore. They vociferously opposed the
RTE Act in the Supreme Court and unlike the other private
institutions, succeeded in convincing the Court to exclude them. It
doesn’t need great wisdom to state that the minority communities in
India have a good number of poor and underprivileged people as
members. In fact on many occasions the minority community leaders
argue before the same Supreme Court for various rights like SC
reservations etc in the name of the poor among their flock. It
shows their utter disregard for the poor in their communities that
when it comes to providing free education to the children of their
own poor they shrug off their responsibility. It shows the minority
leadership in true colours. For them only the numbers matter but
not the social conditions within their community.
It is a sad commentary that the Supreme Court lets them off the
hook when it comes to providing basic education to the poor and
underprivileged children of their communities. It is well-known
that many of the most expensive schools in our country are
minority-run schools. It is also well-known that they provide
education not to the pupils of their community but those of the
rich families of the majority who can afford the astronomical
fee.
The SC order states that they can happily continue to do so while
the responsibility of the poor and underprivileged among the
minority community will be borne by the schools run by the
non-minority. They should do that without any prejudice because
that is the ethos of the country. But let the poor and
underprivileged among the minorities understand that when it comes
to uplifting them the so-called minority leaders show no sympathy
or sense of responsibility. At least that is one of the major
meanings of the SC order on the RTE Act.
- Ram Madhav
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