Constitutional Provisions for Right to Education in the Indo-Nepalese Context: Gap between Policy and Practice

Abstract

This study aims at comparatively identifying the constitutional provisions for right to education, their implementation and impact on education in India and Nepal. This is an analytical descriptive study based on document analysis. By the mid of 2011, 81% constitutions of the world guaranteed or aspired to protect the right to primary education. Nepal and India both have clear constitutional provisions for right to free and compulsory basic education but are unable to fulfil the international and national educational commitments and goals. India and Nepal fall in 2nd and 48th rank respectively based on population in the world in 2018. However, educational indicators indicate that both the countries could not ensure the educational access to all the children. In the year 2014-15, 22.131 million children were either not enrolled or did not complete primary education in India. This number was 270 958 in Nepal in the same year. Results show that there is a wide gap between the educational policies and their actual implementation in India and Nepal.