The Jammu and Kashmir School Education (Amendment) Act-2013 will be a landmark Act that provides and protects educational rights of the children very comprehensively. This is the fundamental approach to drastically reduce the level of illiteracy in the State. According to the Act all children are entitled to free and compulsory education up to 8th class. The concept of free and compulsory elementary education is not a new or novel concept. It will be reminded that during the reign of late Maharaja Hari Singh, the Government floated the policy of compulsory education and the schools opened for this purposes were called jabriyah schools. A wide network of jabriyah schools was opened and teachers were appointed with the responsibility of bringing students for free primary education in these schools. The jabriyah school movement became very popular. Then one of the important measures taken by the Government of late Ba khshi Ghulam Muhammad was to make education free from class one to post graduate level in the State. This historic decision was taken in view of economic backwardness of the State and also because of high rate of illiteracy among the people.
However, the Amendment to the Act now under consideration has many more dimensions than what obtained in the past and to which reference has been made. Under this amended Act three agencies are involved in bringing about a meaningful reform in the draft educational policy. They are the Government, the local agencies, private or pubic and the parents. Actually the Act is based on the rights of children not only to education but to other areas of social and political life as well. The draft policy has been thoroughly discussed in seven chapters of the Act and deals with almost all aspects related to the subject. Every child from 6 to 14 years has the right to education which is compulsory and free. Obviously when the Government concedes the right to the children, it means that adequate number of schools and teacher will be provided and also the necessary infrastructure to make the Act functional. It has to be seen how the Government tackles the issue of opening fresh schools and how smoothly and expeditiously teachers will be recruited and other infrastructural requiremens; provided to make the schools run smoothly. The Government’s duty is to provide the infrastructure; the duty of the local organizations is to motivate the parents to send their kids to the school and also keep an eye whether the clauses of the Act are strictly observed. The parents have also been involved according to the Act and they will have to pay fine for obstructing children, both boys and girls, from access to free education. Local social organizations will ensure that no child is left out and if there is a case of parents obstructing a child from going to school, it can be referred to the local magistrate who will prosecute the defaulters under law and impose punitive punishment.
It will be reminded here that the motivation for the Government to impose strict penalty on parents or organizations for hindering a child from receiving free and compulsory education is child labour. The Act under discussion will ensure that no such violation of children takes place and those who are found involved in the crime will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law. The Act forbids Government teachers doing private tuition.
Responsibility imposed by the Act on the parents is welcome. After all primarily, it is the parents who have to know the clauses of the Act and its implications. By the term compulsory, it has to be understood that the Government wants to eradicate illiteracy from the State within a stipulated time and that too through persuasions. I is sad that small children when they should be in the schools struggling with their 3 Rs are forced to assist their parents in the agrarian pursuits or work in the workshop of a carpet weaver or shawl weaver or work as a daily labourer at a construction site. Now the parents will be under an obligation to send their children to schools at least till the age of 14 by which the elementary schooling is done.
In an overall estimation, the Government has taken a bold step in contemplating the educational reform bill of far reaching consequences. This is total deviation from the stereotyped educational system and besides all this it is most practical way of safeguarding the rights of the child. We appreciate the Government’s initiative. As the bill has been put to the public domain for views of experts, educationists and public personalities, we are confident that it will cull a positive note.
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