RAS question
Article 45 (after 86th Amendment) directs early childhood care until age:
Correct answer: (D) 6 years.
After the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, Article 45 directs the State to endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years.
Explanation
The 86th Amendment split the Constitution's education mandate into two connected parts. It inserted Article 21A, which requires the State to provide free and compulsory education to children aged six to fourteen years. It also substituted Article 45 with a narrower directive principle on the pre-school stage: the State must endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years. Fourteen is therefore outside Article 45 after the amendment; fourteen belongs to the Article 21A right-to-education bracket, while Article 45 covers children below six.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Fourteen years is the upper end of the Article 21A free-and-compulsory-education bracket for ages six to fourteen, not the age limit in the substituted Article 45.
- (B) The 86th Amendment text does not create any Article 45 threshold at ten years; it fixes early childhood care and education until completion of six years.
- (C) Three years is not the constitutional age used in the substituted Article 45, which covers all children until they complete six years.
Concept
After the 86th Amendment, Article 21A and Article 45 occupy separate constitutional roles. Education for ages six to fourteen moved into Fundamental Rights, while early childhood care remained a Directive Principle.