Question

What do you know about the right to education?What have activists and Scholars working on education found out?

Answer 1

Three years ago, a group of 22 fifth-graders at the Bab Ul-Uloom School in Seelampur – one of Delhi’s lowest income localities – were assigned a unique project—to devise their own child rights charter. “Children should be taught to stand up for what they believe in,” says Anurag Kundu, the 2013-2015 Teach For India Fellow who was responsible for the class. He had named them, aspirationally, the “College Scholars”. He noticed that one thing featured prominently in every student’s charter – that every child should be entitled to a good education.

Rights and Reality

Theoretically, the national Right To Education Act (RTE) guarantees a good education to all. It also dictates that every recognised “private unaided school is required to reserve 25 % of its entry level seats for students from economically weaker sections and socially disadvantaged groups” (Section 12(1)(c)).

However, when Anurag began conducting research after his Fellowship, as the Lead of Advocacy and Community Engagement at Indus Action, he discovered that a majority of private schools regulated by the North, South, and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (MCD) were in violation of this provision. This meant that hundreds of children from backgrounds akin to the College Scholars were being denied their rights. He was deeply disturbed by the injustice.