Uniform education policy for children of migrant workers during pandemic is now unnecessary: SC

NEW DELH I: The Supreme Court on Thursday termed as "infructuous" a 2020 plea that had sought uniform education policy for children of migrant workers to avoid discrimination and digital divide during the coronavirus pandemic.

A bench of Justices S K Kaul and Abhay S Oka noted the COVID-19 period is over now. "The passage of time has made this matter infructuous as the issue sought to be addressed was education of children of migrants during COVID-19. The counsel for the petitioner seeks to withdraw the plea," the bench said. The top court was hearing a plea filed by NGO, Good Governance Chambers contending that the steps taken to regulate elementary education during the coronavirus pandemic were inadequate.

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The NGO had sought directions to effectively address the issues related to elementary education of children in the age group of six to 14 years, which was recognised as a fundamental right under the Constitution. The court had in August 2020 issued notice to the Centre on the plea.

Earlier, the education ministry released guidelines to identify and educate migrant children. At the time, it was felt necessary for every state and union territory to make a strategy to prevent dropouts, lower enrolments, loss of learning and deterioration in the progress made in providing universal access, quality and equity in education in the recent years.

To ensure that children of migrant workers have access to education with quality and equity and to minimize the impact of the pandemic on school education across the country, the education ministry issued detailed set of 6 guidelines on steps to be taken by the States and UTs during school closure and when the school re-open.