Consider the following statements about ‘Right to Education’ and choose the correct answer: 1. It try to achieve the aim of ‘Education for All’. 2. Earlier a provision of free and compulsory education was provided in Part IV of the Constitution. 3. It became Fundamental Right after 91st Constitutional Amendment.
- (a)Only 1 and 2
- (b)Only 2 and 3
- (c)Only 1 and 3
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — A, Only 1 and 2.
The first statement holds. Article 21A and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 exist to bring every child of six to fourteen years into an elementary school, which is the domestic shape of the 'Education for All' goal.
The second statement holds. As originally enacted, Article 45 sat in Part IV and asked the State to endeavour, within ten years of the Constitution's commencement, to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete fourteen years.
The third statement fails on a single number. The change was made by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002. The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 dealt with the size of the Council of Ministers.
Carry this away: education crossed from a non-justiciable directive in Part IV to an enforceable Fundamental Right in Part III, and the amendment that carried it across is the 86th.
- (b)Only 2 and 3 — It keeps the third statement, whose amendment number is wrong, and it throws away a first statement that is sound.
This pairing answers a version of the set that fixes the amendment number and carries a false first statement — one claiming Article 21A covers six to eighteen years rather than six to fourteen.
- (c)Only 1 and 3 — It carries the false third statement, and it also drops statement 2, which is accurate: before 2002 the promise of free and compulsory education did sit in Part IV, as Article 45.
The 1-and-3 pairing would be right only in a set where statement 3 names the Eighty-sixth Amendment and statement 2 wrongly placed the older promise in Part III, among the enforceable Fundamental Rights — a placement education received only with Article 21A in 2002.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 — Statements 1 and 2 are sound, so this option fails on statement 3 alone, and statement 3 names the wrong amendment.
It is the right answer to a version of this set whose third statement names the Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002; with that single substitution all three statements stand together.
A promise can appear in the Constitution in two different registers. Part IV holds the Directive Principles — instructions to the State that a court will not enforce. Part III holds Fundamental Rights, which a citizen can enforce through Article 32 or Article 226.
Education began in the first register. Article 45, as enacted, gave the State ten years to make education free and compulsory up to the age of fourteen: an endeavour, not a guarantee.
The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 moved the core of that promise into the second register as Article 21A, for children of six to fourteen years, and left a substituted Article 45 to speak for the years below six.
This transfer is a worked example of a Directive Principle hardening into a Fundamental Right, so both the placement and the amendment number are worth holding.
It also explains the machinery built around it. The RTE Act, 2009 is the law Parliament made under Article 21A, and Article 51A(k) is the matching Fundamental Duty placed on a parent or guardian.
- Article 21A, inserted by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, guarantees free and compulsory education to all children of six to fourteen years.
- As originally enacted, Article 45 in Part IV asked the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to fourteen years.
- Article 45 as enacted set the State a ten-year deadline from the commencement of the Constitution for that endeavour.
- The same 2002 amendment substituted Article 45, which now speaks of early childhood care and education for children below six years.
- The 86th Amendment also added Article 51A(k), a Fundamental Duty on a parent or guardian to provide education opportunities to a child between six and fourteen years.
- The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and Article 21A both took effect on 1 April 2010.
- The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 capped the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the House's strength and barred defection-disqualified members from ministerial office.
- Education was shifted from the State List to the Concurrent List by the Forty-second Amendment, 1976.
- In Unni Krishnan J. P. v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993) the Supreme Court read a right to education up to fourteen years into Article 21.
Statement 3 fails on the number alone — the crossing into Part III carries 86, not 91.
- Statement 3 is true in substance and false only in its number, so the amendment number has to be read as the claim, not as decoration.
- Article 45 survives the 2002 amendment in substituted form, covering children below six years — it was not repealed.
- Article 21A names six to fourteen years, so an option offering six to eighteen is a different claim and fails.
- Two dates attach to this right — enactment of the 86th Amendment in 2002 and commencement on 1 April 2010; check which one the item asks for.
- In a statement set, one false statement eliminates every option containing it; here that single test cuts four options down to one.
The idea surfaces as a straight number match — which amendment inserted Article 21A — with the near-miss numbers sitting in the options, and as a match-list pairing amendments to their subjects.
It also comes as a statement set like this one, where the content of a statement is true but the amendment number attached to it has been swapped, and as an age-bracket check on 'six to fourteen years'.
MPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q562025Same fact, asked directly: which amendment made free and compulsory education for six to fourteen year olds a Fundamental Right. There the amendment number is the whole question and the wrong numbers sit in the options; here it is buried inside one statement of a three-statement set, so the number has to be tested rather than chosen.
MPPSC_2023_PRE_PaperI_Q872023Also asks which amendment brought the Right to Education into the Fundamental Rights, with the Eighty-fourth offered as the near miss. The shared point is the 86th Amendment; what differs is that this UKPSC item additionally tests where the promise sat before 2002, which the MPPSC item does not touch.
CDS_GK_2021_II_Q892021The closest parallel in method: a statement is correct about Article 21A carrying the Right to Education but attaches the wrong amendment, the Eighty-fifth, and that wrong number is what makes it the odd one out. Here the same device uses the Ninety-first. What differs is the format — an odd-one-out across unrelated constitutional statements rather than a statement combination.
HPSC_2023_PRE_GSII_Q762023A matching item that pairs the 86th Constitutional Amendment with education as a fundamental right, alongside the 26th, 52nd and 103rd. It rewards the same amendment-to-subject table this question needs, but tests recognition across four amendments instead of the Part IV to Part III shift.
UPSC_2006_GS1_Q942006Uses the identical trap with a different wrong number — it credits the 76th Amendment with making education for six to fourteen year olds a Fundamental Right. It also carries the Concurrent List point from the 42nd Amendment, which sits beside this question rather than inside it.
NDA_GAT_2025_II_Q932025Tests the same right on a different axis: it offers free and compulsory education 'in the age bracket of six to eighteen years' among candidate Fundamental Rights. Article 21A names six to fourteen. Where this UKPSC item hinges on the amendment number, that one hinges on the age bracket.
UPPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q982024Reaches the same aim from the policy side, listing free and compulsory education among the measures for Sustainable Development Goal 4. It matches the 'Education for All' idea in the first statement, but carries none of the constitutional placement or amendment-number content that decides this question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 made which of the following changes? 1. Inserted Article 21A. 2. Substituted Article 45. 3. Added a Fundamental Duty on a parent or guardian regarding a child's education.
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 2 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answerd — All three changes belong to the same 2002 Act: it inserted Article 21A into Part III, substituted Article 45 to cover early childhood care and education below six years, and added Article 51A(k).(a) and (b) stop short of changes the same Act made. (c) leaves out Article 21A, which is the amendment's central provision.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Before the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, the provision for free and compulsory education for children up to fourteen years was located in:
- (a)Part III, as Article 21A
- (b)Part IV, as Article 45
- (c)Part IVA, as Article 51A
- (d)Part XVI, as Article 337
Answerb — As originally enacted, Article 45 stood in Part IV among the Directive Principles and asked the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education up to the age of fourteen.(a) describes the position only from 2002 onwards, when Article 21A was inserted. (c) names Part IVA, the Fundamental Duties. (d) Article 337 concerns educational grants for the Anglo-Indian community.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 is associated with which one of the following?
- (a)Making education a Fundamental Right
- (b)Limiting the size of the Council of Ministers
- (c)Reservation for economically weaker sections
- (d)Extending the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in legislatures
Answerb — The 2003 amendment capped the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the strength of the House and barred a member disqualified for defection from holding a ministerial post.(a) is the Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002. (c) is the One Hundred and Third Amendment, 2019. (d) is the subject of separate amendments extending Article 334.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Education was shifted from the State List to the Concurrent List by which Constitutional Amendment?
- (a)Forty-second Amendment, 1976
- (b)Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978
- (c)Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002
- (d)One Hundred and First Amendment, 2016
Answera — The Forty-second Amendment, 1976 moved education from the State List to the Concurrent List, which is why both the Union and the States legislate on it today.(b) The Forty-fourth is remembered for taking the right to property out of Part III. (c) The Eighty-sixth inserted Article 21A. (d) The One Hundred and First brought in the Goods and Services Tax.