(a) whether the Government is planning to enhance the ambit of the Right to Education Act, if so,
the details thereof; and
(b) whether the Government has any proposal of Indianizing the education system giving more
exposure about the ancient/medieval/modern history of India rather than focusing of the history
of the invaders and if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)
(a) The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE), Act, 2009 provides that every
child of the age of six to fourteen years shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a
neighbourhood school till the completion of his or her elementary education (upto class VIII). The
Department of School Education and Literacy has launched an Integrated Scheme for School Education
– Samagra Shiksha from 2018-19, which subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher
Education (TE). The new integrated scheme envisages school education as a continuum from preschool
to senior secondary level and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.
The major objectives of the Samagra Shiksha are provisioning of quality education and
enhancing learning outcomes of students, bridging social and gender gaps in schools education,
ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education, ensuring minimum standards in
schooling, promoting vocationalisation of education, supporting States and UTs in implementation of
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and strengthening and
up-gradation of State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERTs)/State Institutes of
Education and District Institute for Education and Training (DIETs).
(b) The content related to ancient/medieval/modern history of India is already part of the National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbooks. Examples are mentioned
below:
<pre>
(i) Textbook in History for Class VI, Our Pasts-I ( Relates to ancient Indian history)
(ii) Textbook in History for Class VII, Our Pasts-II ( Relates to medieval Indian history)
(iii) Textbook in History for Class VIII, Our Pasts-III ( Relates to modern Indian history)
(iv) Textbook in History for Class IX and X: India and the Contemporary World-I & II (Relate
to history of the contemporary world locating India within that larger history)
(v) Textbook in History for Class XI: Themes in World History (Relates to important themes of
world history)
(vi) Textbook in History for Class XII: Themes in Indian History, Part I (Relates to important
themes of ancient history of India)
(vii) Textbook in History for Class XII: Themes in Indian History, Part II (Relates to important
themes of medieval history of India)
(viii) Textbook in History for Class XII: Themes in Indian History, Part III (Relates to important
themes of modern history of India)
</pre>
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