The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 provides for education to every child in the age group

Correct — D, (d) 6 – 14 years.

The Act's proper short title is the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009; the booklet prints it without the words 'of Children', as set. It came into force on 1 April 2010, and section 3(1) is the operative provision: every child of the age of SIX TO FOURTEEN YEARS has a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till the completion of elementary education.

That range is not chosen by the Act. It is dictated by the Constitution. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted ARTICLE 21A, which reads: '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.' The 2009 Act is the law contemplated by the closing words of that Article, so its coverage had to match the Article's — six to fourteen — and could not be anything else.

The same 86th Amendment did two further things that fix the range in place at both ends. It SUBSTITUTED ARTICLE 45, which had directed free and compulsory education for all children until the age of fourteen, so that it now directs the State to provide early childhood care and education for children BELOW the age of six — the years before the Fundamental Right begins. And it inserted ARTICLE 51A(k), a Fundamental Duty on a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward between the ages of six and fourteen years.

The upper limit of fourteen also lines up with the Constitution's other age threshold for children. ARTICLE 24 prohibits the employment of any child below fourteen years in a factory, a mine or any other hazardous employment. Setting the right to education to end at exactly the age at which such employment ceases to be prohibited is the design logic of the whole scheme: the years in which a child may not be put to work are the years in which the State must educate the child.

'Elementary education' in the Act means Classes I to VIII, which is what six to fourteen covers, and the booklet prints all four ranges with a spaced en dash rather than a hyphen.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)5 – 13 years — Off by one year at each end, and the mistake it captures is a real one: five is the age at which many Indian children in fact begin school, and school entry practice varies between States. But the Fundamental Right does not run from actual practice — it runs from Article 21A, which names six as the lower limit, and the years below six are dealt with separately by the substituted Article 45 as early childhood care and education, a Directive Principle rather than a right. Ending at thirteen would also break the alignment with Article 24, which sets the child-employment threshold at fourteen.
• (b)8 – 16 years — This corresponds to nothing in the constitutional scheme at either end. No provision uses eight as a threshold for education, and sixteen is not an age the Constitution attaches to children's rights at all. The number that does have currency beyond fourteen is EIGHTEEN — the definition of a child in the Juvenile Justice legislation and in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and the upper end of the secondary-and-senior-secondary stage that later policy has proposed bringing within a right to education. Sixteen is neither the constitutional limit nor the policy one.
• (c)7 – 15 years — Again off by one at both ends, and this version is attractive because seven is the age of school entry used in some other countries and in some school systems in India. But the age range in the 2009 Act is not a policy choice open to variation; it reproduces Article 21A word for word. Running the right to fifteen would also carry it a year past the Article 24 employment threshold and a year past the completion of elementary education, which the Act defines as Classes I to VIII.

The right to education is the clearest example in the Constitution of a Directive Principle being converted into a Fundamental Right, and the sequence is worth knowing as a sequence.

THE ORIGINAL POSITION. Article 45, as enacted, was a Directive Principle: the State should endeavour to provide, within ten years, free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. Being a Directive Principle it was not enforceable in a court.

THE JUDICIAL MOVE. In Unni Krishnan (1993) the Supreme Court read a right to education for children up to fourteen into the right to life under Article 21, holding that the Directive Principle had to be read together with the Fundamental Rights.

THE AMENDMENT. The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002 made three changes at once — inserted Article 21A creating the Fundamental Right for the six-to-fourteen group; substituted Article 45 so that it now covers early childhood care and education below six; and inserted Article 51A(k), the corresponding Fundamental Duty on parents and guardians.

THE STATUTE. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, in force from 1 April 2010, is the law Article 21A calls for. Its main features are a right to free and compulsory elementary education in a neighbourhood school; a bar on capitation fees and screening at admission; no detention, expulsion or board examination until the completion of elementary education; a duty on private unaided schools under section 12(1)(c) to admit at least twenty-five per cent of their entry-level class from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups; norms for pupil-teacher ratios, buildings and working days; and a bar on the deployment of teachers for non-educational work other than census, elections and disaster relief.

The general lesson is that where a Fundamental Right is created by amendment and then implemented by statute, the statute's coverage is fixed by the Article's own words. Asking what the Act covers is the same question as asking what Article 21A says.

Key facts

• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 came into force on 1 April 2010 and covers children of the age of six to fourteen years.
• Article 21A, inserted by the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002, requires the State to 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.
• The 86th Amendment also substituted Article 45, which now directs early childhood care and education for children BELOW six, and inserted Article 51A(k), the parent's Fundamental Duty for the six-to-fourteen group.
• Article 24 prohibits the employment of a child below fourteen years in a factory, mine or other hazardous employment, which is why the education right ends at fourteen.
• 'Elementary education' under the Act means Classes I to VIII.
• Section 12(1)(c) requires private unaided schools to admit at least twenty-five per cent of their entry-level class from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups.
• Before the amendment, Article 45 was a Directive Principle; Unni Krishnan (1993) had read a right to education up to fourteen into Article 21.

Common traps

• Answering from the age at which children in fact start school rather than from Article 21A. The Article fixes six, whatever local practice does.
• Confusing the education threshold of fourteen with the definition of a child as under eighteen in the juvenile justice and child protection statutes.
• Assuming the Act could choose its own age range. It implements Article 21A and must match its words.
• Forgetting that the years below six are covered separately, by the substituted Article 45, as a Directive Principle rather than as a right.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 21A of the Constitution of India was inserted by which Constitutional Amendment Act ?

  • (a)The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992
  • (b)The 86th Amendment Act, 2002
  • (c)The 93rd Amendment Act, 2005
  • (d)The 97th Amendment Act, 2011

  Answer(b) The 86th Amendment Act, 2002 — it inserted Article 21A creating the Fundamental Right to free and compulsory education for children of six to fourteen years, substituted Article 45 to cover early childhood care and education below six, and inserted the Fundamental Duty in Article 51A(k). The 73rd dealt with panchayats, the 93rd with reservation in educational institutions and the 97th with co-operative societies.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, private unaided schools are required to admit, in the entry-level class, children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups to the extent of at least

  • (a)10 per cent
  • (b)15 per cent
  • (c)25 per cent
  • (d)33 per cent

  Answer(c) 25 per cent — section 12(1)(c) requires a school belonging to the specified categories of private unaided schools to admit at least twenty-five per cent of the strength of its entry-level class from children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood, and to provide free and compulsory elementary education to them.