LAW PANEL - MAKE EDUCATION COMPULSORY, FREE FROM AGE 3

Social Issues Education

Published on: 27-Aug-15
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Children should be provided free and compulsory education from the age of three, not six to 14 as provided under the Right to Education Act, the Law Commission recommended to the government saying 90 per cent of the brain develops before the age of five.
“Early childhood, spanning from birth to the age of six years, is the period that sees the most rapid growth and development of the entire human lifespan. It is during this period that the foundations of cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development, language and personality are laid,” the Commission said in its 259th report.
The recommendations in the report, titled “Early Childhood Development and Legal Entitlements”, were based on international conventions, treaties and declarations, the law panel said. It suggested that the government amend the Constitution for the purpose.
In other words, the environment was unfavorable and the child faced deprivation or emotional or physical abuse, the brain development “is negatively affected and the window of opportunity is lost, often irrevocably,” it explained.
The Commission’s view has come at a time when many state governments are against parents sending their kids to school before the age of five.
The panel said the amendment was all the more necessary as India had 158.7 million children in the 0-6 age group, comprising about 16 per cent of the total population. During 2008-13, 43 per cent of the country’s under-five children were underweight and 48 per cent had stunted growth, it pointed out. The amendment should also focus on preventing malnutrition, disease, poverty and social exclusion and abuse of kids

By: Vishal

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