The authors of "Feasibility of Implementation of Right to Education Act" (EPW, 20 June 2009) respond to the critique of their argument by Padma M Sarangapani (EPW, 24 October 2009) and Vimala Ramachandran (EPW, 11 July 2009).
This article argues that even an allocation of 6% of the gross domestic product to the education budget would not be sufficient to fund universal school education until the very distant future if the government school system is used as the only instrument. The only way to meet the Right to Education obligation is to rely on low cost private schools as a significant instrument of the government education policy. On the contrary, the proposed rte bill introduces provisions that would oppose low cost private schools. Therefore, the legislation for rte needs to be modified and framed with specific provisions for private-public partnerships.
