PIL for 'One nation, one education board'

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to introduce 'One nation-One Education Board', contending that there must be no discrimination in quality of education.

The right of a child should not be restricted only to free and compulsory education, but must be extended to value-based equal quality education without any discrimination, it said.

Advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Updhayay sought a direction to the Union government to ascertain the feasibility of 'One Nation-One Education Board' in the place of the existing multi-board education system, viz. ICSE and CBSE, among others.

He said children are vulnerable and they need to be valued, nurtured, caressed and protected.

A student of a government school was ill-equipped to compete with the student of a private school that provided British or French systems of education, the petitioner said.

Even though this disparity cannot be fully removed, the government can establish a standardised entrance system for college and university aspirants, he said.

Standardisation of syllabus curriculum would mean that everyone would have an equal chances of getting into colleges and universities, the petition read.

It also said the right to education implied the idea of equal quality education. "Article 21A is the most important fundamental right and other rights are meaningless without effectuating it effectively throughout the country. Right to Education stands above other fundamental rights, as one’s ability to enforce the fundamental right flow from one’s education," the petition said.

The petitioner claimed a common education system would address many of the ills of the country, including sectarianism and the chasm between the rich and the poor.