RIGHT TO EDUCATION AND RIGHT TO INTERNET ACCESS INTERTWISTED INEXTRICABLY

INTRODUCTION

Education is a key to unlock a superlative degree of change, a change that can make our world a better place to be at and youth are the torchbearers of this positive change but until and unless youth are not going to be educated, this change will not be that easy to make. An educated youth can give birth to an educated nation as a whole, so education is a priority and today this priority is somehow attached to internet as this provides the only mode to gain education in current times. As we can observe as per today’s scenario internet is paving the bridge to gain education in online modes. But unviability of net in rural area, in this era where world have started an evolved form of environment for both education and work, there are still some citizens of India who are deprived of their fundamental right to gain education. Internet problems are creating a barrier for them.

To quote Justice PN Bhagwati, Former Chief Justice of India: “The child is a soul with a being, a nature and capacities of its own, who must be helped to find them, to grow into their maturity, into a fullness of physical and vital energy and the utmost breadth, depth and height of its emotional, intellectual and spiritual being; otherwise, there cannot be a healthy growth of the nation.”

ABOUT RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into force from April 1, 2010. This was a historic day for the people of India as from this day the right to education will be accorded the same legal status as the right to life as provided by Article 21-Aof the Indian Constitution.Article 21 states that every child in the age group of 6-14 years will be provided 8 years of elementary education in an age-appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his/her neighbourhood.

The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards to define their life in an empowered way wherein they gain sufficient education to feed themselves economically.

Major provisions of the RTEincludes a Right of a child to gain free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school. It clarifies the real essence of the terms used in this article that are compulsory education and free. It makes provisions for compulsory admission of children to an age-appropriate class. This article also specifies the responsibilities of appropriate Governments, local authority and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the Central and State Governments. It also lays down the norms and standards relating to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) to maintain a check on quality teachers, buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief. It provides an aspect of appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e., teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications so that they can imbibe appropriately standard education to kids. Not only that it prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment; screening procedures for admission of children; capitation fee; private tuition by teachers and running of schools without recognition and provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, which would ensure the all-round development of the child.

UNDERPRIVILEGED STUDENTS DURING COVID-19

Education sector is one of the most pessimistically impacted sectors around the globe and especially in India. Underprivileged students have faced a whole lot of degradation and have been into crisis. Vulnerability surrounded them when this system of online studies started and the gap between them and education widened plus student’s sense of going to schools and having a proper routine has also been impacted highly. This has led to interrupted learning because this approach of online learning was and still is quite new plus internet unavailability made it more difficult for the underprivileged students to keep a tract of their studies as they had fewer educational opportunities beyond school. Plus, a lot of challenges still emerge to create appropriate distance learning as children residing in rural area are not that techno-savvy in terms of using technology as they do not have feasible resources.

But here the crucial thing is that education which is such a fundamental part of one’s life should not get interrupted due to such intrusions, the learning process for the children should continue anyhow, unavailability of proper resources in making this difficult for them. It is of utter need to provide students with proper internet accessibility as this is the only means through which they can gain their education during these presidential times. According to the survey “roughly 50% of our country’s population don’t have access to internet, also the internet shutdowns in our country has been highest in the year 2019 and 2020.”

RIGHT TO INTERNET

The Right to Internet access , also known as the right to broadband or freedom to connect, is the view that all people must be able to access the Internet in order to exercise and enjoy their rights to freedom of expression and opinion and other fundamental human rights, that states have a responsibility to ensure that Internet access is broadly available, and that states may not unreasonably restrict an individual’s access to the Internet.

The Access to Web has perhaps occupied the most fundamental components of lives of individuals in the 21st century; the dependency of individuals on web has expanded essentially. This issue became more alarmingly, because of the abrogation of the Article 370. In the case Faheema Shirin v. State of Kerala it was stated that Right to Internet cannot be denied. In another case that is Anuradha Bhasin Vs UOI, it was clarified by the SC that the freedom of Expression through Internet is one of the integral parts of Article 19(1) and thus it is a fundamental right. Through this statement it gave wings of hope that is future Right to Internet Access will become a fundamental right. Till now it’s very vague and out of any scope especially in terms of India that whether this will be ever done or not in India.

It is of utmost importance that Right to Internet Access gets included in one of the clauses of Right to Education so that the importance of access to internet is reflected. Education has become inextricably linked to the internet availability and also, we are moving towards digitalization with a great speed. Internet has become an unavoidable thing and is one of the necessities of today’s time.

Many nations have made Right to Internet Access, an essential right of an individual like in 2001 Greece changed its Constitution and inserted Article 5-A urging that the state is responsible to provide electronically sent information, creation, exchange, and scattering also in 2010, The Peak Court of Costa Rico proclaimed admittance to Web an essential basic freedom and stated that under Article 33 of the Constitution of Costa Rico, Admittance to the Web is a Major Common liberty plus in Canada, Canadian Radio TV and Media communications Commission (2016) articulated Web access a major help. These nations have done so to maintain convenient access of internet to all its citizens so that they never have to suffer due to lack of internet accessibility. According to UNHRC (United Nation Body), Right to Internet should be made as a fundamental right by all the member nations of the UN.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the world is evolving and in this evolved world Internet plays a vital role. Non-access of internet is depriving individuals of various opportunities, information and many such things plus is impacting education a lot. Every generation looks up to the following generation with the hope that they shall build up a better nation and to create that vision, education which empowers the future generation should always be the main concern for any nation. Education is crucial to shape minds and as a whole the world so it should never have a pause. But due to current situation education system is hassled as it has become solely dependent on Internet. However, due to the widespread poverty in the society, the efforts to develop a smooth educational system in India with full access to internet have not been achieved.

The above scenario can take a huge turn of change if Right to Internet is made a fundamental right. It can have an optimistic impact on the education system. Government should ensure that every citizen of India gets access to an internet connection and is not excluded from today’s digitalized sphere. I strongly believe that more than half of the problem in connection with low literacy rate will evaporate if adequate importance is given to Right to Internet Access, as the same will result in accessible and quality education. I can back the said statement by the latest data that confirm, “a mere 22% of schools across the country on average had Internet access, while government institutions fare much worse at 11%”, it is also stated that this is what is causing a major obstacle in the path of education. To eradicate this problem there are only 2 pathways: one, to provide education in an old-school gurukul way or second, to provide widespread Internet access so that students suffice their needs in current times, amongst these 2 options, first one is near to impossible as it will simply mean taking great leap backwards but second one is a feasible way to opt for.

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By Shambhvi Agarwal (2nd Year, UPES School of Law)

Featured Image: SabrangIndia