In India, a country with complex culture and religion, huge social class differences and unbalanced regional development, it is of great practical significance to promote educational equity to realize social equity and justice. India has always attached great importance to promoting the education equity policy, implemented the rights-based education policy in accordance with the Constitution and law, and amended the Constitution several times to authorize the state to formulate relevant education equity laws, which specify the educational rights enjoyed by the people and the proportion of enrollment quotas.

1. Ensuring children's right to education and promoting the fairness of compulsory education

In p>29, the President of India approved the Law on Children's Right to Free Compulsory Education, which is a landmark education law in the history of Indian education development, marking that India has since embarked on the track of promoting universal free compulsory education according to law.

Universal eight-year compulsory education has always been the educational development goal pursued by India since its independence. The provision of free compulsory education for all children under the age of 14 is one of the guiding principles of national policy stipulated in the Indian Constitution. Over the years, the development of primary education in India has made great progress, and the number of students and schools has expanded rapidly, but there is still a big gap from the goal of universal primary education. The number of out-of-school children who have not completed primary education, especially those from disadvantaged groups and disadvantaged classes, is still huge, and the quality of students' academic achievements has not reached satisfactory results.

(1) Basic contents of the law on children's right to free and compulsory education

1. Guarantee children's right to education. Ensuring children's right to education, maintaining social fairness and justice, and implementing free compulsory education based on rights embody the fundamental spirit of this legislation.

2. stipulate the government's responsibility for running schools. Article 3 stipulates that the central and state governments shall bear the expenses for running compulsory education, and the central government shall prepare the budget for capital construction and recurrent expenditure of compulsory education. In the management system, three levels of running schools are implemented, and the central government, state, city and county governments are responsible for each other. The main responsibilities of the central government are to formulate the national curriculum framework, formulate and implement teacher training standards, and provide technical support and resources. The main duties of state, city and county governments are to provide free compulsory primary education to every child until he is 14 years old; Ensure that every child aged 6-14 is compulsory to attend school, attend classes and complete primary education; Ensure the availability of nearby schools; Ensure that children from low-income groups and disadvantaged groups can receive and complete primary education without discrimination; Providing infrastructure including school buildings, teaching staff and teaching equipment; Monitor the attendance, attendance and completion of primary education of each child; Ensure that there is a good quality primary education that meets the standards for running schools.

3. Private schools must provide 25% free places. The law has made rigid provisions on the proportion of places in private schools that provide free and compulsory education. Article 13 stipulates that subsidized schools (assisted by private offices) must provide at least 25% free places. Non-subsidized schools (completely private schools) must enroll at least 25% of children from low-income families and disadvantaged families in neighboring areas from the first grade, and provide free compulsory education until they complete their studies. The state will bear the corresponding expenses according to the per capita expenditure standard or actual expenditure. If the school has enjoyed preferential policies in land use, school buildings, equipment and facilities, the state will no longer bear the expenses. The rigid proportion of free places will help to expand the enrollment.

4. school fees will be "one charge and ten penalties". In order to ensure the implementation of free compulsory education, it is strictly forbidden for all kinds of schools to collect sponsorship fees of various names and screen children for admission. Article 13 stipulates that when enrolling children, schools or individuals shall not charge any sponsorship fees, and shall not screen and select children or their parents or guardians for admission. To collect sponsorship fees, a fine of 1 times the sponsorship fee; Those who screen and select children for admission to school will be fined 25, rupees (about 5 rupees in 1 yuan) for the first offence and 5, rupees for the second offence.

5. Establish a school management committee. Every public school and subsidized school should set up a school management committee, which is composed of local government, parents or guardians of children and teachers' representatives, with parents or guardians accounting for 3/4, ensuring a certain proportion of representatives of parents or guardians of disadvantaged groups and low-income children to participate, and the proportion of Committee members should reach 5%. The functions of the school management committee are: to supervise the work of the school; Formulate the school development plan; Supervise the use of school funds; Perform other functions stipulated by laws and regulations.

6. Teachers should meet the qualification standards. Teachers are fundamental to the development of education. Article 23 stipulates that all teachers must meet the minimum qualification standards within five years, otherwise they may not take up their posts; Governments at all levels should ensure the ratio of students to teachers in each school; The personnel department should control the number of teacher vacancies within 1% of the establishment; Except for census, disaster relief and elections, teachers in the establishment shall not be arranged to engage in non-educational activities. Establish a teacher complaint mechanism. Article 28 also stipulates that "teachers shall not engage in tutoring or private teaching activities".

7. Curriculum evaluation should promote students' all-round development. Curriculum development and evaluation should follow the following principles and conform to the values advocated by the Constitution; Promote the all-round development of children; Build children's knowledge and give play to their potential and talents; Maximize the development of children's physique and intelligence; In a student-friendly and student-oriented way, learning is carried out through activities, discovery and exploration; Children's mother tongue should be used as the teaching language; Free students from fear, psychological trauma and anxiety, and help children express their views freely; Comprehensive and continuous evaluation of children's understanding of knowledge and their ability to use knowledge.

The law also stipulates that students may not be required to take any examination organized by the examination committee before completing primary education. Students complete primary education and issue diplomas.

(II) Main measures to promote the fairness of compulsory education

India holds the largest compulsory education in the world, with nearly 2 million students in the compulsory education stage, accounting for 77.4% of the total educated population.

1. Improve the educational opportunities of the disadvantaged groups. The caste system is a kind of social class or group system that exists among Indian residents and is strictly distinguished from each other. The government has already explicitly abolished it.

2. Pay attention to areas with backward education. India's revised definition standard for educationally backward areas has been implemented since April 1, 28. The literacy rate of women in rural towns is less than 3%, and the literacy rate of women in urban streets is lower than the national average of 53.67% in the 21 national census. There are 94 urban blocks in educationally backward areas. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, priority will be given to opening new multidisciplinary technical schools in districts and counties where ethnic minorities are concentrated.

3. Promote the development of education in areas with backward social and economic development. Northeast China is backward in social and economic development, and 1% of the total budget supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development is used for the education development in Northeast China, and the gap is automatically supplemented by the "Central Resource Guarantee Bank" managed by the Ministry of Development of Northeast China to support regional basic capacity development projects.

4. Free lunch plan. India has a long history of implementing the free lunch program. As early as 1925, the Madras Municipal Council raised the free lunch for children in need. By the 198s, three states had implemented the free lunch program, which was expanded to 12 states in the early 199s.

2. Implementing the enrollment quota system and promoting the fairness of higher education

Paying attention to the opportunities for disadvantaged students to receive higher education and promoting social fairness and justice has always been the educational policy orientation of India. India reserves places for the disadvantaged groups in terms of college enrollment, employment of college teachers and employment in public sector, so as to ensure that the disadvantaged groups have the opportunity to move upward, improve their social and educational status and enable them to occupy their due position in the mainstream society of India.

(1) The law stipulates the enrollment quota for disadvantaged groups

India's deep-rooted caste system and unbalanced social and economic development have caused many disadvantaged groups. India has mainly defined three categories of vulnerable groups: scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.

according to the law, the newly-added 27% reserved places for "other backward classes" students are only applicable to universities directly under the central government. These universities have gathered the best educational resources in India, such as the famous Indian Institute of Technology, the Central University and the Indian Institute of Management, which are all under the central government's jurisdiction, and are the most competitive universities in India, and have become synonymous with elite education in India.

(II) Relevant measures to implement the policy of reserving enrollment places

The Indian government has always attached importance to the development and welfare of the people of vulnerable groups, and has specially set up two ministries (Ministry of Social Justice and Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and two statutory national committees (National Scheduled Castes Committee and National Scheduled Tribes Committee) to promote the welfare of the people of three vulnerable groups. The education department and relevant ministries and commissions have taken various effective measures to actively implement the policy of reserving university enrollment places.

Build new colleges and universities in backward education areas and expand the regional distribution of opportunities. There are 374 educationally backward counties in India whose gross enrollment rate of higher education is lower than the national average, accounting for 58% of the total number of county-level administrative units in the country, and a model degree college has been established in each educationally backward county.

(III) There is a long way to go to achieve educational equity

The government has made great efforts to increase the opportunities for disadvantaged students to receive higher education, and the proportion of disadvantaged students in the number of students in colleges and universities is constantly increasing.

One of the reasons for the low proportion of disadvantaged students is the low enrollment rate, high dropout rate and poor education quality in the basic education stage, which leads to the low overall quality of disadvantaged students. Therefore, in the actual enrollment, only a small number of students took advantage of the reserved places, and a large proportion of the reserved places were not used up. This requires the government to make greater efforts to popularize quality compulsory education and ensure the quality of disadvantaged students. There is still a long way to go to realize the "equal opportunity" promised by the Constitution.