Context

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has released a report —The “Impact of Exemption under Article 15 (5) with regards to Article 21A of the Constitution of India on Education of Children in Minority Communities”. The Report assessed minority schools in the country.

What are the key-findings of the report?

• Many children who are enrolled in these institutions or schools were not able to enjoy the entitlements that other children are enjoying because the institution they are studying in is exempted and is enjoying the rights of minority institutions.
• Only 4.18% of total students received benefits such as freeships, free uniforms and books, scholarships, etc. from school.
• The Commission has also found surges in the number of schools applying for minority status certificates after the 93rd amendment was brought in, with more than 85% schools of the total schools securing the certificate in the years 2005-2009 and later.

Detrimental effects of the exemption

• Cocoons populated by elites: On the one hand there are schools (mostly Christian Missionary schools), which are admitting only a certain class of students and leaving underprivileged children out of the system.
• Backwardness: Other types of minority schools (in particular madarasas), have become “ghettos of underprivileged students languishing in backwardness’’. The Commission has said that students in madarasas which do not offer a secular course along with religious studies – such as the sciences – have fallen behind and feel a sense of alienation and “inferiority’’ when they leave school.

Major recommendations of the Report:

• Under the purview of RTE and SA: Minority schools are exempt from implementing The Right to Education policy and do not fall under the government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. NCPCR has recommended that these schools be brought under both RTE and SA.

•  The state governments need to introduce strict guidelines on the minimum percentage of minority students that these schools need to admit, as well as look at the proportion of schools run by a particular minority community in relation to the size of the population living in the state, before the school is awarded recognition.

What are minority institutions?                                 

• Section 2(g) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act- A minority institution means a college or institution (other than a university) established or maintained by a person or group of person from amongst the minority.

How a minority is determined?

• Here, a minority is to be determined only by reference to the demography of the state and not by taking into consideration the population of the country as a whole (TMA Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka).

• Article 30 provides two rights i.e., to establish and to administer educational institutions to the Linguistic or religious minorities.
• The expression ‘establish and administer’ are to be read conjunctively.
• It means that to claim the benefit of Article 30(1), the community must show that it is a linguistic or religious minority and that the institution was established by it to claim the right to administer it. 

Conclusion

Despite the large presence of minority students in school-going age groups, minority schools are catering to less than 8% of the minority children population. This is worrisome. Thus, there is need to lay down specific guidelines regarding the code of conduct of such minority institutions.