New Delhi: An amendment to the Right To
Education Act to include disabled children under its ambit is
likely to come before the Cabinet tomorrow.
The government has decided to amend the Right of Children
to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was passed by
Parliament in July this year, keeping in view the concerns of
various groups, including those disabled children who were
working, official sources said today.
Such groups have been putting pressure on the government
to ensure that disabled children are covered by the Act and
had also earlier taken up the matter with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh.
The Act provides for free and compulsory education as a
fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age bracket and
earmarked 25 per cent seats to children from economically
weaker sections in private schools.
The amendment will also take care of concerns raised by
certain minority groups that provisions regarding the
management committee under the Act are inconsistent with the
Article 30 of the Constitutions.
Article 30 provides the minorities with the right to
establish and administer educational institutions freely.
As per the RTE Act, the management committee should
comprise elected representatives of the local authority,
parents or guardians of children, and teachers.
PTI
