Amendment to RTE for education of disabled passed

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The Lok Sabha Wednesday passed an amendment to the Right to Education Act which will facilitate education of disabled children and allow those with severe disabilities the option of receiving education at home.

The amendment was passed by the Rajya Sabha last month.

Replying to the debate on the bill in the Lok Sabha, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal described it as a far reaching step in reforming the education system.

"We have initiated educational reform...It will take time to change the system," Sibal told the Lok Sabha.

The amendment will also give an advisory role to the school management committees in minority institutions, both aided and unaided, and will put madrasas and vedic schools and other institutions providing primarily religious instruction outside the mandate of the Act.

The amendment to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2010, popularly called the Right to Education bill, was pending in the house for two-and-a-half years.

The original bill was passed in August 2009.