Good Quality education is a fundamental right.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE/ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5068 OF 2023
(ARISING OUT OF SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) No.20743 OF 2021)
DEVESH SHARMA … Appellant
Versus
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. …Respondent(s)

11. “The Indian Constitution is first and foremost a social document”, writes Granville Austin2 . The Rights contained in Part III and the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Part IV together establish conditions which further the goal of this social revolution3 . Austin goes on to call Part III and Part IV of the Constitution as “The Conscience of the Constitution”4 . Free and compulsory education for children was a part of the social vision, of the framers of our Constitution. 12. Elementary education for children is today a Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21A of Part III of the Constitution of India. Every child (upto 14 years of age), has a fundamental Right to have ‘free’ and ‘compulsory’ elementary education. But then ‘free’ and ‘compulsory’ elementary education is of no use unless it is also a ‘meaningful’ education. In other words, elementary education has to be of good ‘quality’, and not just a ritual or formality! 13. Our progress, in achieving this constitutional goal, has been slow. In some ways, it is still a work in progress. Prior to the Constitutional 86th Amendment, the Right to Education was in 2 Austin, Granville. “The Conscience of the Constitution”. The Indian Constitution, Cornerstone of a Nation, Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 50 3 Ibid – pp 50. 4 Ibid – pp 50. 9 Part-IV of the Constitution (Article 45), as a Directive Principle of State Policy. Directive Principles, as we know, are a set of goals which the state must strive to achieve. The goal set out in Article 455 of the Constitution (as it stood at that time), was to make elementary education free and compulsory for all children up to age of 14 years, within 10 years of the promulgation of the Constitution. All the same, it would take much more than ten years to achieve this goal. 14. The 1986 National Policy on Education, modified in the year 1992, declared that free and compulsory elementary education of ‘satisfactory quality’ be given to all children up to the age of fourteen years, before the nation enters the next century i.e., 21st Century. 15. Later in the seminal judgment of this court in Unni Krishnan J.P. versus State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors. (AIR 1993 SC 2178), it was held that children have a fundamental right to free education, till they complete the age of fourteen years. 5 Article 45 of the Constitution as it existed prior to the 86th Amendment: “Provision for free and compulsory education for children.— The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.” 10 16. In the year 1997, in order to make free and compulsory education a fundamental right the 83rd Constitutional Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament, to insert a new Article in Part III of the Constitution of India, which was to be Article 21A. The Bill was sent for the scrutiny of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources Development. The Standing Committee not only welcomed the amendment but in addition emphasizes on the ‘quality of elementary education’. This is what it said. “The eminent educationists felt that the Bill is silent on the ‘Quality’ of Education. They suggested that there should be a reference to ‘quality’ of education in the Bill. The Secretary, Education agreed that the ‘quality’ aspect also has to be seen. Education definitely must mean ‘quality’ education and anything less than that should not be called education. Therefore, the emphasis would be through strengthening the teacher education content, the Secretary stated.”6 Finally, by way of the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act of 2002, Article 21A, was inserted as a Fundamental Right in Part III of 6 Para 13 of the Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development. 11 the Constitution, and made effective from 01.04.2010. Article 21A of the Constitution reads as under: “Article 21A: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.” 17. In order to fulfil the above mandate Right to Education Act, 2009, was passed by the Parliament on August 20, 2009, which became effective from 01.04.2010. The object and reasons of the Act declared loud and clear that what the Act seeks to achieve is not merely ‘free’ and ‘compulsory’ elementary education, but equally important would be the ‘Quality’ of this education! The Preamble to the Act states “that every child has a right to be provided full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable ‘quality’ in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards”. 18. When the validity of the Act was challenged before this Court7 , this Court, while upholding its validity emphasized that the Act, was intended not only to impart “free” and “compulsory” education to children, but the purpose was also to impart ‘quality’ education! 7 7 In Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India & Anr. [(2012) 6 SCC 1] 12 “The provisions of this Act are intended not only to guarantee right to free and compulsory education to children, but it also envisages imparting of ‘quality’ education by providing required infrastructure and compliance of specified norms and standards in the schools.” [See Para 8, (2012) 6 SCC 1] 19. As we can see, the purpose behind bringing this pathbreaking legislation was not to complete the formality of ‘free and compulsory’ elementary education for children, but to make a qualitative difference in elementary education and to impart it in a meaningful manner. Provisions like ‘Right to be admitted in a neighbourhood school’8 , ‘No denial of admission’9 and ‘Prohibition of physical punishment and mental harassment’10, are some of the heartwarming provisions of the Act. 20. The Act sets down certain norms and standards which have to be followed in elementary schools, and this is with the purpose of providing a meaningful and ‘quality’ education. To name some of these requirements such as:- A. The necessary infrastructure requirement. B. Pupil teacher ratio which is 30:1 and 8 Section 3 of the Right to Education Act, 2009. 9 Section 15 of the Right to Education Act, 2009. 10 Section 17 of the Right to Education Act, 2009. 13 C. The absolute necessity of trained as well as qualified teachers. 21. Free and compulsory education for children becomes meaningless if we make compromise on its ‘quality’. We must recruit the best qualified teachers. A good teacher is the first assurance of ‘quality’ education in a school. Any compromise on the qualification of teachers would necessarily mean a compromise on the ‘quality’ of education. Jacques Barzun, the American educationalist and historian, in his seminal work ‘Teacher in America’, says “teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition”11. Though this comment was for the state of higher education in America, it is equally relevant here on the treatment of Primary education in our country, as it emerges from the facts before us.