A conflicting picture between fundamental right of children and right of minority communities

A conflicting picture between fundamental right of children and right of minority communities

Subject: Polity

Context: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has released a report — The “Impact of Exemption under Article 15 (5) with regards to Article 21A of the Constitution of India on Education of Children in Minority Communities”

Concept:

• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has assessed minority schools (schools run by minority organisations) in the country. Minority schools are exempt from implementing the Right to Education policy and do not fall under the government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
• Through this report, the NCPCR has recommended that these schools be brought under both RTE and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Conflicting picture between fundamental right of children and right of minority communities

• In 2002, the 86th Amendment to the Constitution provided the Right to Education as a fundamental right .The same amendment inserted Article 21A, which made the RTE a fundamental right for children aged between six and 14 years.
• The passage of the amendment was followed by the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a central government scheme implemented in partnership with the state governments that aimed to provide “useful and relevant, elementary education’’ to all children between six and 14 years.
• Article 21A that guarantees fundamental right of education to all children, and Article 30 which allows minorities to set up their own institutions with their own rules and Article 15 (5) which exempts minority schools from RTE – as ”creating a conflicting picture between fundamental right of children and right of minority communities’’.
• In 2006, the 93rd Constitution Amendment Act inserted Clause (5) in Article 15 which enabled the State to create special provisions, such as reservations for advancement of any backward classes of citizens like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in all aided or unaided educational institutes, except minority educational institutes.
• The government subsequently brought the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which centres around inclusive education for all, making it mandatory to include underprivileged children in schools.
• Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act provided for 25 percent reservation of seats in unaided schools for admission of children from economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups.
• As opposed to these Acts, Article 30 of the Constitution states the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, with a view to provide opportunities to children from different religious and linguistic minority communities to have and conserve a distinct culture, script and language.
• Subsequently, in 2012, through an amendment, the institutions imparting religious education were exempted from following the RTE Act. Later on, in 2014, while discussing the validity of exemption under Article 15 (5), the Supreme Court declared the RTE Act inapplicable to schools with minority status with the view that the Act should not interfere with the right of minorities to establish and administer institutions of their choice.