The constitution of India (Bhartiya Samvidhan) is the supreme law of our country. A constitution by it’s definition means a set of fundamental principles or rules according to which a nation, state or corporation is governed. It consist of rights which we fought for such as political independence, self-government, democracy, rule of law, economic well being and so on.
Fundamental Rights In India
On the other hand the Fundamental Duties are moral obligations of all citizens to help the country develop and progress. To quote Mahatma Gandhi from his book Hind Swaraj, “real rights are a result of [the] performance of duty.” Originally ten in number, the fundamental duties were increased to eleven by the 86th Amendment in 2002, which added a duty on every parent or guardian to ensure that their child or ward was provided opportunities for education between the ages of 6 to 14 years. This was also the foundation stone for the (RTE) Right to Education Act 2009.
Why education at school?
Children are capable of learning from their surrounding, they learn things at their homes, they learn things when they interact with people, they learn by reading books. These are important learning but informal in nature. Schools provide a platform to exchange the informal learning plus provides a structured learning that one needs to live in society. School is like a miniature society where children are trained to add value to the bigger world later in their life. Thus schools just don’t provide academic knowledge but takes care of social well-being where a child sees her/his place in a world outside the house. The child is exposed to different types of people belonging to different age groups and different culture. Which expands the world view and also teaches the child to modulate influence. This instills social skills such as listening, sharing, empathy, friendship, maintaining personal space, team work and so on.
Unlike schools in the past where discipline was the most important thing and rote memorization was the only pedagogy. Today, children are made to think, ask questions, create knowledge and express themselves. They are kept updated with the latest piece of knowledge, current affairs and advancement in the field of technology (coding and STEAM). Not to mention the free space of school corridors and play ground where they learn to wrestle and muscle their way out of the restrictive four walls of a house. They learn different art forms, it could be modern dance or a particular genre of music or simply painting with ochre and making pots with clay. They child is exposed to creative education overall. While making friends or enjoying the recess the child is able to break prejudice, question stereotypes and condemn discrimination. At school curious minds are freed to imagine the world as a better place to live. Thus, parents and guardians need to provide opportunities for education for their children or ward between the age of six and fourteen years.
To read more about the 11 fundamental duties you can download the PDF