The Right to Education Bill is expected to be on the agenda at Friday’s Cabinet meeting. The long-pending Bill, which envisages free and compulsory education to all children between 6 and 14 years has been on hold for some time but got into revival mode late last year.

The Bill had its latest run with trouble with the Law Ministry over the wording of Article 21A that envisages “free and compulsory education” and provisions for “equitable quality”. The Law Ministry suggested these be removed as they could lead to litigation. The HRD Ministry objected to the same saying it was necessary to be included to ensure that systemic changes are instituted in the schooling system through the Bill. The two ministries have fnally sorted out the issues in question.

The Bill envisages that government schools shall provide free education to all children and the schools will be managed by school management committees. Private schools shall admit at least 25 per cent of the children in their schools without any fee.

The National Commission for Elementary Education shall be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education.

While the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) put up the first draft of the Bill in 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent it to a high-level group which asked the states to enact it. The states rejected the Bill saying it would burn a hole in their finances.

Early this year, the HRD Ministry prepared a draft based on the CABE version and sent it to ministries concerned. The Planning Commission then circulated the new draft keeping out private schools from all provisions.