Source: NDTV
Online education was covered under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Therefore, the private schools were providing the same as part of their responsibilities and not as a voluntary or social service, said the Delhi High Court on Friday.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula said that the tuition fee was payable towards providing good education and ‘not for a lien on a seat’. The word education includes face-to-face real-time online education, and respondent schools are estopped from contending to the contrary.
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The schools are providing online education as a part of responsibility under the RTE Act, 2009 and not voluntarily, the bench underlined.The court on its page 94 directed the schools to provide gadgets and internet packages to needy students. The bench said it can dynamically interpret provisions of the RTE Act according to the evolving needs of the society and also apply the statute to new technologies like synchronous online learning in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.
