After almost five years of having drafted the Right to Education Bill in 2003 and six years after Parliament had made free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children, the Right to Education Bill, 2008 is likely to be introduced in the coming session of Parliament.

The Centre and the states have finally worked out a fund-sharing formula and both would have concurrent responsibility for providing funds to implement the legislation. The confusion over the funding pattern was the main reason behind the delay of the Bill. The Union Cabinet had to refer the Bill to the Group of Ministers (GoM) in August as the Planning Commission and the finance ministry had raised questions about the funding pattern of the legislation. The GoM cleared the Bill at its meeting held on Tuesday, official sources said.

?There is no problem in the Bill now. A satisfactory solution on funding responsibility (between the States and the Centre) has been achieved. I am quite satisfied. Some modifications have been done to the Bill,? Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a member of the GoM, said on Wednesday.

The Central government would prepare ?normative estimates? of expenditure that would be required to provide educational facilities as laid out in the Bill. The Centre would also prepare separate estimates for the upgradation of infrastructure and enhancement of level and quality of education at the elementary level. The Centre?s share of funds would be fixed from time to time in consultation with the states.

The GoM, which includes human resource development minister Arjun Singh, finance minister P Chidambaram and science and technology minister Kapil Sibal besides Ahluwalia, cleared the Bill without making any significant changes in the key provisions some of which were considered contentious including the provision that required private unaided schools to set aside 25% of total seats at the entry level for socially and economically weaker students in the neighbourhood and that the schools cannot ask for donations or capitation fees nor can they interview the child or parents. The Bill states that schools would be penalised if these provisions were flouted. The Centre would set up a national advisory council consisting of experts in the field of elementary education and child development to advice the government regarding effective implementation of the Bill.

The Bill envisages free and compulsory education to around 19.2 crore children between 6 and 14 years. Under the Bill, the government would provide funds to the private unaided schools who do not receive any funds or aid in the form of cheap or free land from the government for the 25% seats that they would set aside at the entry level (class one) for disadvantaged children in the neighbourhood. The government spends roughly Rs 1,700 per child as against an average of Rs 1,100 by a private school.

For private-aided schools that receive substantial grants from the government, more than 51%, would have to take in children from the neighbourhood, to the extent of the concession they get from the government, which might be to full capacity. These aided schools have a strong presence in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, this sector accounts for 60% of elementary schools and 20% in Tamil Nadu.

This provision is in keeping with the Kothari Commission?s recommendation to introduce a common school system, as well as the Supreme Court?s judgement against commercialisation of private schools.

The suggestion to draw private schools into the net was first made by the NDA government in its draft Free and Compulsory Education for Children Bill. The Central Advisory Board of Education subcommittee on free and compulsory education refined the idea. This was further improved in the subsequent August 2005 version of the Right to Education Bill.

The Bill is in keeping with the UPA promise made in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) to universalise education. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been announcing that his government will introduce the Bill before the Parliament before the UPA government?s term in office ends. The financial requirement for implementing the initiatives under the Bill is estimated to cost Rs 2.28 lakh crore for seven years from 2008-09 to 2014-15.