FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO EDUCATION AND THE CONSTITUTION: A Critical Review of Laws, Policies and Programmes

Description

The volume is remarkable for its pithy remarks in the form of aphorisms and axioms on the current issues of school education. For example, “the attempt of the government to change the textbook is a deliberate endeavour to propagate a particular ideology”. It is “unequivocally dangerous and antithetical to the best interests of the children and their future”. This amounts to making the textbooks the “manifesto of political parties”. “Compromising the interests of children for narrow political gain is an indication of immature democracy”. …“Education is a process of socialisation to achieve pluralism and adhere to the core values of fraternity, of brotherhood, cooperation and peaceful co-existence”. “Right to Education epitomises the indivisibility and inter-dependence of all human rights”. The failure of a child in an examination “is a failure of the system as a whole rather than of the child”.

On the whole, this book stands out as one of the most valuable and brilliant additions to the current literature on school education in India.

Niranjanaradhya, popularly known as Aradhya has a PhD in Education and is well known as a Development Educationist and Mentor of School Development and Monitoring Committees (SDMC) in Karnataka. He is known for his outstanding contribution to strengthen public education by strengthening government schools in the nation through which he aims to build a Common School System based on the neighbourhood school principle, to ensure equitable quality education to all children. He has extensively researched, taught, networked, lobbied and advocated on issues related to school education, especially on the nuances of making government schools functional to deliver equitable quality education through the participatory research process. He has travelled extensively at international, national and state level to attend various programmes on school education and delivered talks on wide ranging issues related to Right to Education, Community Participation, and Common School System among others. He has authored and co-authored several books, articles and columns on issues related to school education and community participation that gives critical and insightful thoughts on the subject. He is a prolific writer in the vernacular language and writes on many issues related to school education from the constitutional view point to cherish the constitutional values to build an egalitarian society based on equality and social justice. He is a well-known columnist on education.