Policy Wise

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

While the government had no trouble in finding 20,000 crore for expanding higher education subsequent to implementation of OBC reservations -a minister explicitly said that ‘money is not a problem’, it seems money indeed is the problem when it comes to ensuring a far more fundamental right. The right to primary education which every kid is entitled to irrespective of his ability to pay.

In May this year, the ministry had circulated a model Right to Education Bill — enforcing penalty provisions for refusing admission to children between 6-14 — to the states, asking them to enact it. As an incentive to implement the proposed law, the ministry had stated that the states that enforce the Education law will get 75 per cent allocation under the Sarva Saksha Abhiyan (SSA) and those who do not, would get only 50 per cent.But the state governments are not ready to take that. Instead, they want the Central government to foot the entire bill that it takes to implement the law. Their argument was that proceeds from the education cess go to the Central government, not to them. The HRD ministry had drawn up an annual estimate of Rs 55,000 crore to implement the Right to Education law but the Planning Commission had expressed its inability to spare that kind of money. It was then that it asked the state governments to implement the law.[link]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!