Lack of basic facilities such as toilets and drinking water in government schools is forcing the poor parents to admit their children in private schools and encouraging establishment of private schools, the High Court of Karnataka said on Monday.
This scenario, the court said, is resulting in failure to implement the constitutional mandate of providing free education to children up to the age of 14.
“If a parent, who does not earn enough to have two meals a day, has to compromise on the meals to put his children to private schools, is it not that the situation is being created due to lack of basic facilities in government schools?... fortunately, the situation right now is that haves get basic facilities and have-nots have nothing at all. This is unfortunate,” the court observed orally.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit made these observation on noticing that the government is still unable to provide toilet and drinking water facilities in large number of schools even though the schools are set up many years ago despite being aware of the situation.
The Bench has been monitoring implementation of the provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in a suo motu PIL petition initiated in 2013 on the issue of out-of-school children.
“Not against pvt. schools”
“Is education only for children of privileged class? No research is required to know that it is the children from underprivileged class who join the government schools. Can the State expect underprivileged family to admit their children to private schools..?,” the Bench asked the government.
While stating the court is not against establishment of private schools as per the law, the Bench said that unfortunately lack of basic facilities in government schools is aiding establishment of private schools as government schools are being closed due to insufficient number of students.
Book in Ambedkar’s hand
“Equality comes only by education... That is the reason we always see B.R. Ambedkar holding a book in his hand. Have you ever seen a bust or photograph of Dr. Ambedkar without a book? Because education is so important. You [State government] provide many free services, including bus services... but education is essential,” the Bench observed.
The Bench agreed with the submissions of the amicus curie K.N. Phanindra and others that lack of basic facilities in government schools is impacting the fundamental right of the children to free and compulsory education as guaranteed under Article 21A of the Constitution.
Also, the Bench pointed out that an official report on education in Bangladesh has found that the government schools in that country are better than the government schools in India.
