Cabinet discuss amendment to Right To Education Act

Updated on: Thursday, December 24, 2009

New Delhi: An amendment to the Right To Education Act to include disabled children under its ambit is likely to come before the Cabinet tomorrow.

The government has decided to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was passed by Parliament in July this year, keeping in view the concerns of various groups, including those disabled children who were working, official sources said today.

Such groups have been putting pressure on the government to ensure that disabled children are covered by the Act and had also earlier taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Act provides for free and compulsory education as a fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age bracket and earmarked 25 per cent seats to children from economically weaker sections in private schools.

The amendment will also take care of concerns raised by certain minority groups that provisions regarding the management committee under the Act are inconsistent with the Article 30 of the Constitutions.

Article 30 provides the minorities with the right to establish and administer educational institutions freely. As per the RTE Act, the management committee should comprise elected representatives of the local authority, parents or guardians of children, and teachers.

Cabinet discuss amendment to Right To Education Act

More Education news