AS you know, the Right to Education Bill has been passed in Rajya Sabha by 50 members present out of a total RS strength of 250. The Bill is slated for discussion in the Lok Sabha on the 24th of July.

The Bill in its current form will do more harm to peoples long standing demand of equal and free access to quality education for all children, up to the age of 18. It chooses to ignore several of the gaps in the current system, and what is worse, do so in the name of the Right to Education. What the bill will do is leave out crores of children from age 0-6 and 14 -18; propagate a tiered, differentially qualitative system of education, and further the design of education to be a business proposition. It dilutes the concept of Common School System and the concept of Neighbourhood School system by doling out a provision of 25 per cent reservation in government and government-aided private schools, which is, in fact contradictory to its claim for wanting to establish CSS.

There are several other lacuna in the Bill as pointed out by a host of rights organizations and experts in the field if education.

We request you to sign and get this petition signed by as many people and organizations as possible before its too late. If ever there was a time to stand for the rights of the children of India - that time is now.