New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS): The Lok Sabha Tuesday passed what Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal termed "historic" legislation providing for free and compulsory education for all children in the 6-14 age-group.
"This is the first time an effort has been made to universalise education in the country," the minister said, adding: "We have been talking about it for the last 16 years."
He said it was high time "we gave every child a legal right" to education.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009, that the Rajya Sabha had cleared July 20 was passed by the lower house by a voice vote, and Sibal, who piloted the measure, gave a clarion call to all states to cooperate with the central government in implementing the measure.
There were as many as 20 cut motions from the Left parties against the proposed legislation but these were defeated on the floor of the house.
The bill will now go to President Pratibha Patil for her assent before becoming law.
"There is no politics here, this is a partnership between the centre and the states for India's future," Sibal maintained. "This is a national enterprise. All state governments, us and civil society organisations are part of it."
The minister said there were "10 historic things" in the legislation. Enlisting these, he counted free education, compulsory education, insistence on having a national curriculum and quality education that gives three years' time to schools to set up physical infrastructure or face de-recognition.
Sibal said every school in India would have to fulfil infrastructure requirements and the states have been advised to set up recognition authorities. "This is the first time such a leap forward had been taken," the minister added.
Among other firsts, he said to ensure there were properly qualified teachers, the legislation would give under-qualified teachers five years to acquire the necessary academic credentials.
Simultaneously, the states would be told that all new appointments must meet qualification standards prescribed by an academic authority.
The legislation, in what the minister said was another historic move, calls for 25 percent reservation in private schools for disadvantaged children from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and socially and educationally backward sections.
He said the states have been given the liberty to decide the disadvantaged classes whose children would be eligible under the 25 percent reservation category.
However, the law would make it mandatory when the model rules were framed for its implementation that children with disabilities were mandatorily included among the disadvantaged children.
"This will be the first time in India that disabled children are integrated with the school system," Sibal said.