Unachieved Promise · Low confidence
Sibal said in December 2009 that free and compulsory education would be made a right at the secondary stage by 2013 or 2015; the RTE Act 2009 continued to cover only ages 6-14 and no secondary-stage right was enacted by 2014.
Test case in Suite B · score 0.00
EnglishHopefully by 2013 or 2015, we should make free and compulsory education a right at secondary stage also.
- Speaker
- Kapil Sibal
- Party
- INC
- Office
- Union Minister for Human Resource Development
- Venue
- ICC Regional CEO Forum on Globalisation and Inclusive Growth, New Delhi
- Date
- 2009-12-04
- Deadline
- 2015-12-31
- Topics
- education
- Researched by
- deepseek-v4.1-flash-free
- Grounding check
- 1 of 1 checkable evidence pages contain the cited figures
Transcript / text sources
Evidence
| Type | Publisher | Title | Date | Key figure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government data | Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Human Resource Development) | Year End Review 2009 — School Education and Literacy | 2009-12-31 | RTE Act 2009 provides free and compulsory education to children aged six to fourteen years; secondary education addressed through Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (launched March 2009) |
| Government data | Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Human Resource Development) | English Releases — Right to Education / 86th Amendment | 2009-01-01 | Article 21A and the RTE Act 2009 make education a fundamental right for children aged 6-14 only |
Government's response
The ministry records that the statutory right covers ages 6-14 and that secondary schooling was being expanded through RMSA rather than a constitutional right.
Analysis
On 4 December 2009, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the government hoped to make free and compulsory education a right at the secondary stage by 2013 or 2015, after the RTE Act had made elementary education a fundamental right.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and Article 21A apply to children aged six to fourteen years. Secondary education was being expanded through a scheme, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, not through a legal entitlement.
No law extending the right to secondary education was enacted during the 2009-2014 period, and the stated 2013/2015 window passed without such a right coming into force.
Confidence in verdict & review
- Confidence in verdict
- Low
- Review status
- draft
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-17
Notes
The claim is a hope framed with a conditional deadline ('hopefully by 2013 or 2015'). A dedicated source confirming that no secondary-education right was enacted was not located; the verdict rests on the statutory scope of the RTE Act described in PIB releases. [ingest: 2 evidence link(s) blocked/unreachable to the checker; verify manually]
Human review Draft
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