New Delhi Feb 22 PTI The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought the Centres reply on a plea challenging certain provisions of the Right to Education Act 2009 for allegedly being arbitrary and irrational and seeking introduction of a common syllabus and curriculum for children across the countryA bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to the Union ministries of Education Law and Justice and Home Affairs on the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on March 30The PIL said existence of Sections 1 4 and 1 5 of the RTE Act and the absence of a common curriculum in mother language leads to the fostering and perpetuation of ignorance and delays the attainment of fundamental dutiesPetitioner advocate Ashwini Upadhyay said it is the duty of the Union to effectuate a common education system but it has failed in the fulfilment of this necessary obligation as it has simply adopted the pre-existing National Curriculum Framework NCF of 2005 which is very oldThe plea challenged the provisions under the RTE Act which excludes madrasas vedic pathshalas and educational institutions imparting religious knowledge within its ambitThe injury caused to children is extremely large because rather than implementing a common education system for all the children up to 14 yearsthe Centre inserted sections 14 and 15 to deprive educational excellence to madrasas vedic pathshalas and educational institutions imparting religious instructionThe Petitioner submits that Sections 14 and 15 not only offend Articles 14 15 16 21 21A but are also contrary to Articles 38 39 and 46 and Preamble the plea saidSection 14 of the RTE Act states Subject to the provisions of articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution the provisions of this Act shall apply to conferment of rights on children to free and compulsory education Section 1 5 of the Act states Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to Madrasas Vedic Pathsalas and educational institutions primarily imparting religious instruction The plea said the prevailing system does not provide equal opportunity to all children as the syllabus and curriculum varies for each strata of the societyIt is necessary to state that the purposive and harmonious construction of Articles 14 15 16 21 21A with Articles 38 39 46 confirms that education is a basic right of every child and the State cannot discriminate against this most important rightRight of a child should not be restricted only to free education but must be extended to have equal quality education without discrimination on the ground of childs social economic and cultural background Therefore the court may declare Sections 14 and 15 arbitrary irrational and violative of Articles 14 15 16 and 21 and direct the Centre to implement common syllabus and common curriculum for the students of I-VIII standard throughout the country the plea saidThe petition said that a common minimum education programme for the children up to 14 years would achieve the code of common culture removal of disparity and depletion of discriminatory values in human relations PTI SKV SA

New Delhi [India], February 22 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Centre and Delhi Government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the provision of the Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009 and sought direction to bring Madrasas, Vedic Pathshalas and educational institutions imparting religious instruction within the ambit of the Act.

New Delhi [India], February 14 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the Government of NCT Delhi on a plea seeking court direction for admission of children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups and ensure the admission against each and every seat the EWS/DG children are entitled to.

New Delhi [India], February 14 (ANI): A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in the Delhi High Court challenging the provision of the Right to Education Act 2009 and seeking direction to bring Madrasas and Vedic Pathshalas within the ambit of the Act.

New Delhi [India], February 11 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the introduction of a common syllabus and curriculum for children upto the age of 14 years across the country.

New Delhi [India], January 16 (ANI): National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Sunday wrote to the District Magistrate of Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh urging to take an action against Darul Uloom Deoband for allegedly issuing unlawful, misleading fatwas regarding children on their website and asked him to submit an action-taken report within 10 days.

Surat, (Gujarat) [India], January 11 (ANI/GIPR): India is facing a severe problem with regard to childhood diseases.

New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Delhi government to come up with a plan to help children of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category and disadvantaged group during the pandemic for their online classes.

New Delhi Sep 22 PTI The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it is not practical to prescribe specific teacher-pupil ratio of special educators for children with special needs in general schools given the uncertainty about the number of such students thereThe government told a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that the policy is to try and train as many general teachers so that they are able to cater to the children with special needs and this is being done on an active scaleAdditional Solicitor General ASG Madhavi Divan appearing for the Ministry of Education said there are general schools and special schools which cater to specific need of children with the special needsIn a general school we feel that it is not possible and not practical to prescribe specific ratio given the range of disability given the uncertainty of how many children in that class there may be So therefore the policy is - try and train as many teachers who are general teachers to be able to cater to those children with disability That is being done on an active scale the ASG told the bench also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T RavikumarDivan said secondly the policy is also to try and ensure that there are special educators and that is left to the state government and they can prescribe how many they want if they want specificallyThe bench which was hearing a plea pertaining to appointment of duly qualified special teachers to impart quality training and education to children with disability reserved its order in the matterDivan told the bench that nearly 4000 government post has now been identified for persons with special needs and therefore now they are going to occupy public posts on a much larger scale than before Does the Central government has the relevant empirical data regarding area-wise how many are specially-abled children who are required to attend schools the bench askedDivan while arguing that they dont have area-wise details but have a broad figure said she will get better instructions on this issueThe bench observed that in a given area there may be more children with special needs for whom the authorities need to provide infrastructure and schools and for that there is a need to evolve a flexible policySuppose in a given school there are 10 students you can have a ratio of at least one teacher for addressing the issues of specially-abled If in a given school there are 100 then the same ratio will be 10 teachers for 100 students That has to be evolved by you the bench saidDivan said the Ministry of Education feel it want to leave that call to be taken by the state governments depending on their regional requirementsThe bench also heard submissions advanced by other lawyers including advocate Shoeb Alam who was appearing for the petitionersHe argued that requirement to fix pupil-teacher ratio is a statutory duty of the Central government under the provision of the RTE Act read with relevant rulesHe said the Central government has no authority to delegate the power to fix the ratio to the statesThe Centre had earlier told the apex court that there is a dedicated component for education of children with special needs as part of the Samagra Shiksha scheme and support is provided to address their requirements in general schoolsIn an additional affidavit filed in the court the Centre government had said that several provisions for children with special needs have been included under the Samagra Shiksha scheme and the support has been enhanced from Rs 3000 per child per annum to Rs 3500It had said as per the data available with unified district information system for education there are 225 lakh children with special needs in the countryIn terms of teachers as per data available 433 lakh general teachers have been trained to teach children with special needs in addition to teaching general children There are also 28535 special teachers for children with special needs the affidavit had saidThe affidavit was filed in the court which is hearing a matter raising the issue about obligation of schools including of the concerned state government to ensure appointment of duly qualified special teachers to impart quality training to children with disability in the ratio enunciated in central enactments as also the schemes propounded by the Central government from time to time and their service conditionsIt had said the Samagra Shiksha scheme is in consonance with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 PTI ABA ABA RKS RKS