The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019 has been notified in the Gazette of India

Why in news?

• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019 which was passed by the Parliament on 3^rdJanuary, 2019 received the assent of the President of India on 10^thJanuary, 2019.
• The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies minimum norms in elementary schools.
• It requires all private schools(except the minority institutions) to reserve 25% of seats for the poor and other categories of children (to be reimbursed by the state as part of the public-private partnership plan).
• Children are admitted in to private schools based on caste-based reservations. It also prohibits all unrecognised schools from practice, and makes provisions for no donation or capitation fees and no interview of the child or parent for admission.
• The Act also provides that no child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education. There is also a provision for special training of school drop-outs to bring them up to par with students of the same age.
• The RTE act requires surveys that will monitor all neighbourhoods, identify children requiring education, and set up facilities for providing it.
• The Right to Education of persons with disabilities until 18 years of age is laid down under a separate legislation- the Persons with Disabilities Act. A number of other provisions regarding improvement of school infrastructure, teacher-student ratio and faculty are made in the Act.
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Actor Right to Education Act (RTE) is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution.
• India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental rightof every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.

(Polity)(source: – press information bureau)