As per this act, every child who comes under the age group of 6 to 14 years has the right to have free and compulsory education. It is been stated as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act through Article 21A. This act seeks out to give effect to this amendment.


All the government schools will offer free education to all the children. Moreover, the schools shall be managed by the School Management Committees (SMC).


Private schools will take at least 25% of the children without any fee.


The National Commission for Elementary Education will be established to monitor all features of basic education as well as quality.


Recently, a new scheme was proposed that promises to mend our existing education system. A new committee was established in this regard and chaired by Dr.Kasturirangan. The following are the planned objectives that this initiative is expected to achieve:




National Education Policy 2019 – Planned Objectives


This scheme is expected to transform the Indian educational systemand equip students, teachers, and educational institutions with the right competencies and capabilities.


As many as 19 proposals have been made by the Ministry of Human Resource Development which are mentioned hereunder;


1.  Formulation of new bodies to overlook different facets of education. One such institution to be formulated is Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or National Education Commission which will be responsible for implementing educational initiatives and serve as the link between the Centre and the states.

2. To rename the Ministry of Human Resource Development as the Ministry of Education.

3. Reconstructing the curriculum and pedagogy with Early Childhood Care and Education as an integral component of school education.

4.  Extending the RTE Act, 2009 to cover children from age group 3 to 18. The curriculum would be divided into four stages based on the cognitive ability development of children.


Foundational stage from 3 to 8 years and would constitute 3 years of primary plus Standard 1 and 2;


Preparatory stage from 8 to 11 years covering Grades 3 to 5;


Middle Stage from 11 to 14 years covering Grades 6 to 8


Secondary Stage from 14 to 18 years and covering Standards 9 to 12.


5. Reducing the content load in the school education curriculum.

6. Functions of regulation, provision of education, accreditation, funding, the standard setting will be done by separate entities and maximum autonomy will be provided. This will eliminate conflicts of interest.

7. Building National Research Foundation to inculcate the culture of research and build research capacity.

8. Promote Indian and classical languages and set up three new National Institutes for Prakrit, Pali, and Persian.

9.  Public and private institutions should be treated as equals and education should be a not for profit activity.

10. The University Grants Commission will transform to Higher Education Grants Commission.

11. Restructure undergraduate programmes of 3 or 4 years duration.

12.  Minimum degree qualification required for teachers will be B.Ed which will be an integrated four-year programme.

13. Including arts, yoga, music, sports, community service, etc in the curriculum.

14. Develop core capacities and minimize rote learning. It will aim to develop several 21st-century skills like scientific temper, multilingualism, critical thinking, digital literacy, social responsibility.

15. Restructure higher education with three types of higher educational institutions.

Type 1– Focused on world-class research and high-quality teaching


Type 2– Focused on high-quality teaching across disciplines and contributing significantly to research


Type 3– High-quality teaching and focused on undergraduate education. This will be driven by two missions, namely, Mission Nalanda and Mission Takshashila.


16. To revamp the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)

17. New policy initiatives for internationalization of higher education, strengthening quality open and distance learning and eliminate social, regional and gender gaps in education.

18.  Set up Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation.

19. Shut down sub-standard teacher education institutions and move all teacher preparation institutions to multidisciplinary universities or colleges.

This, however, is just a draft and after feedback from the general public and consultation from the state government, the draft shall be finalised. The draft is well researched theoretically and focuses on the right issues.

An education built on the foundation of quality and equity is central to sustainable development. The most important form of capital is human capital and should be accorded the highest priority. The National Education Policy is an extensive, inclusive and highly participatory process. It moves towards a common minimum goal of providing quality education to all.