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SGPC stayed silent, but
pernicious Education Act clause to go
WSN Network
NEW
DELHI/AMRITSAR: In its race to come out with a Right To Education
Act, Indian law makers were quick to trample upon the rights of the
minorities to manage their own educational institutions. For some
strange reasons, the SGPC and the Chief Khalsa Diwan, bodies that
run educational institutions and often raise a ruckus over any
attempts to bring about reforms by raising the bogey of interference
in their autonomy, remained silent this time.
But thanks to
efforts by some activist Muslim and Christian groups, the Indian
Government has now declared that the minority schools will not be
covered by the particularly muffling clause of the Act.
It will be
pertinent to recall that a Section in the Act requires setting up of
School Management Committees and 75 per cent of such a management
committee must consist of guardians or parents.
Clearly, the
provision was in violation of Article 30 of the Constitution of the
country that allows the minorities to run and administer their own
educational institutions. The government can only intervene in cases
of alleged corruption.
Now, the Human
Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal has said the provision
will not apply to minority institutions as it can’t override Article
30 of the Constitution.
Sibal made the
announcement at the opening session of a five-day national assembly
of the Conference of Religious India (CRI) here on Monday.
In the 2009
draft of the Act, only unaided schools are excluded from setting up
school management committees. But in the case of OBC quotas in
higher education sector, the UPA had previously exempted all
institutions covered under Article 30.
Another
provision in the law requires all schools to reserve 25 per cent
seats for economically and socially weak children from the
neighbourhood. This is something that the minority-run educational
institutions are perhaps doing even better than the law requires.
30
September 2009
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