RTE Act to be amended to include disabled kids

Children with any kind of disability will soon be entitled to reservation in admission in private schools in their neighbourhood with the Union Cabinet on Thursday approving introduction of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Right to Education Act, 2009.

The amendment also aims at changing the mandate of school management committees constituted under the Act for aided minority institutions.

The Act provides for free and compulsory education as a fundamental right of every child in the 6-14 age group and earmarks 25% of seats to children from "economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups" in private schools. The amendment will ensure inclusion of children with disabilities within the meaning of "children belonging to disadvantaged groups", I&B minister Ambika Soni said after the Cabinet meeting.

The existing Act refers to disabled children as defined under the Person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection and Full Participation) Act, 1996. The amendment will treat children with disabilities as defined in the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

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 Article 30 of the Constitutions which gives minorities 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.

After considering the concerns raised by these groups, the government decided to bring amend the Act to ensure that School Management Committees constituted under the Act by aided minority institutions shall perform an advisory function only.

In other schools, such committees will monitor the working of the school, prepare and recommend school development plans and monitor the utilisation of the grants received from the government and local authority.