The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has been enacted to provide for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years.

Section 2(n) of the RTE Act defines school as any recognized school imparting elementary education and include-(i) a school established, owned or controlled by the appropriate Government or a local authority; (ii) an aided school receiving aid or grants to meet whole or part of its expenses from the appropriate Government or the local authority; (iii) a school belonging to a specified category; and (iv) an unaided school not receiving any kind of aid or grants to meet its expenses from the appropriate Government or the local authority. The Government is also implementing the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day-Meal and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan programmes to make education affordable and accessible for all.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. D. Purandeswari, in a written reply to a question, in the Lok Sabha yesterday.