Indian Education Repository

The report consists of the committee’s observations and recommendations on the proposed insertion of Article 51 (A) in the constitution and deletion of Article 45. They welcome the government’s decision to make the right to free elementary education a Fundamental Right with key recommendations. These include, focus should also remain on good quality of education, the words compulsion and enforcement as proposed in Article 21-A do not go with the theme and spirit of the Fundamental Right, the government should find means to get out of the possibility of increased litigation, the age-limit for inclusion in the right to education should be increased from 0-6 up to 16 years or certification, separate central legislation providing for the basic structure and the details could be made out by the respective states, penal provision may lead to harassment of the parents, free education should be defined in the bill, financial burden may be shared by both the Centre and the States. With regard to Article 14, the committee believed it should be retained as a “Directive Principle is not merely a moral precept but is a positive mandate to the State. Article 45 provides a directive on the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education.”. They also refuted the deletion of Article 21 (A) as even though the so-called private institutions do not receive any financial aid, the children studying in those institutions should not be deprived of their fundamental right, but later supported the deletion.