September 20, 2012

Private schools must also teach the poor for free: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has taken an important step towards universal education by ruling that children from weaker and disadvantaged sections have a right to quality education free of cost in all government and private-run schools.

This ruling could force private schools, mandated to admit students aged between 6 and 14 from weaker and disadvantaged groups free of cost under Article 21A of the Constitution guaranteeing right to education, to dismantle the separate sections they had created in every class for the poor and disadvantaged children.

"Provisions of free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality to children from disadvantaged and weaker section is, therefore, not merely the responsibility of schools run or supported by the appropriate governments, but also of schools which are not dependent on government funds, said a bench of Justices B S Chauhan and F M I Kalifullah.

Writing the judgment for the bench in a case relating to qualification of teachers, Justice Chauhan said, "The educational institutions must function to the best advantage of the citizens. Opportunity to acquire education cannot be confined to the richer section of the society. The policy framework behind education in India is anchored in the belief that the values of equality, social justice and democracy and the creation of a just and humane society can be achieved only through provisions of inclusive elementary education to all."

The bench's judgment made more meaningful the Supreme Court's ruling in State of Tamil Nadu vs K Shyam Sunder last year, when it had said, "The right of a child should not be restricted only to free and compulsory education but should be extended to have quality education without any discrimination on economic, social and cultural background."

Justices Chauhan and Kalifullah said democracy depended for its very life on a high standard of general, vocational and professional education. "Dissemination of learning with search for new knowledge with discipline all round must be maintained at all costs," the bench said.

To maintain high standards of education and make it available to all without discrimination on grounds of economic, social or cultural background, a large number of trained teachers were required to impart quality elementary and basic education, the court said.

Declining to dilute standards set by expert bodies for eligibility of candidates to become teachers, the bench said, "The legislature in its wisdom, after consultation with the expert body, fixes the eligibility for a particular discipline taught in a school. Thus, the eligibility so fixed requires very strict compliance and any appointment in contravention thereof must be held to be void."

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