Indian Education Repository

The Commission provides a detailed note on free and compulsory education with a draft bill for central legislation and emphasises the need for this immediate central legislation to give effect to the right to education without waiting for the constitutional amendment to go through in the Parliament. The committee disagrees with the Saikia Committee on the need for central legislation by stating that the central legislation does not prevent the states from offering proper amendments based on local conditions. With regard to Article 21 clause (2), the Commission was of the view that the word “right to” should be replaced with “obligation to provide”. They also think that clause (3) should be recast in the light of the basic premise of the decision in Supreme Court vs. Unnikrishnan, J.P. that private schools, aided or unaided, must be supplemented, that Article 45 should be ommitted, and proposed to add clause (k) to Article 51A as it would “demonstrate political will and administrative resolve of the country to achieve universalisation of elementary education and to eradicate illiteracy”.