The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (aka RTE Act), 2009 was notified on April 1, pursuant to the 86th Amendment to the Constitution (2002) which guarantees primary education as a fundamental right. The RTE Act and its notification is rightly hailed by many as a landmark in the history of education in post-independence India.� But while these are momentous developments, they also highlight — even 60 years after the Constitution came into force — our conspicuous failure to fulfill the Directive Principle 45 of the Constitution (1950) which promised to provide free and compulsory education to all children within a period of ten years. Had the directive principle been implemented in letter and spirit, the need for the 86th Amendment and the RTE Act would not have arisen.