Source: beta.thehindu.com
INDIA, April 2, 2010: With the Right to Education Act coming into force, India has joined the league of over 130 countries which have legal guarantees to provide free and compulsory education to children. According to the UNESCO’s “Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010,” about 135 countries have constitutional provisions for free and non-discriminatory education for all.
In India, the Right to Education law, providing free and compulsory schooling to children in the 6–14 year age bracket, came into force yesterday. With the new education act now operational, India has joined some 20 other countries including Afghanistan, China and Switzerland which have laws guaranteeing free and compulsory education for eight years of elementary education.
India’s neighbors such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan do not have any law providing free education, where as Bangladesh and Myanmar have such provisions for a four-year-period while Nepal has five years of compulsory schooling.