States responsible for implementing RTE - HRD Minister

New Delhi: As schools in the national capital have been reported not cooperating in taking students from economically weaker sections, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said it is the state governments' responsibility to ensure that schools implement the Right to Education Act.

"If schools are not complying, there is a mechanism in the act, but first of all its state government's responsibility to see it is implemented," he said.

Sibal noted that over 80 lakh children are out of school in the country, and urged the citizens to ensure that the act is implemented.

 "It is our duty to ensure that every child goes to school, every citizen should speak for right to education," he said.

 'Awaz Do', a digital campaign started by UNICEF, registered two lakh people in its campaign launched in October last year. The campaign aims at spreading information about the act and making people a part of the process of providing education to all children between 6 to 14 years of age, as mentioned in the act.

 As per the findings of a study conducted in October 2010, only one out of six people has heard of the act but does not know anything else. Only three percent have heard of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which is tasked with enforcing the act.