National Education Policy 2020

The Right to Education (RTE) Forum has welcomed the reiteration of increasing public investment in education to 6% of the gross domestic product in the recently approved National Education Policy (NEP). The RTE Forum has also acknowledged the recommendation on the universalisation of school education for three to 18 years. However, the organisation has expressed its apprehension on how universalisation will be achieved, as the policy is silent on the extension of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act).

The draft NEP 2019, submitted by the Kasturirangan Committee to the human resource development minister and subsequently released to the public for suggestions, had promised downward and upward extension of the RTE Act to include pre-primary and secondary education within the ambit of the act. All sections of the civil society welcomed this as it would have been a big step towards the universalisation of school education. But with disappointment, it is noted that the final draft fails to make pre-primary and secondary education a legal right.