What is the essential message in this passage?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) The Right to Free and Compulsory Education should include quality education for all.
The passage opens by saying access is no longer enough and builds to its thesis: 'The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all.' The essential message is quality, not mere enrolment.
- ✗ (a) A fact from outside the passage; the constitutional status of the right is never discussed.
- ✗ (b) The passage stresses that children of weaker sections may still stay away even where schools exist — which is why more than access is needed.
- ✓ (c) Quality is 'an integral part of the right to education', and without it children 'are being denied their right'.
- ✗ (d) Attendance is one point in the first paragraph, and the passage never assigns this duty to the Government and parents.
Remember · The essential message is the claim the whole passage builds towards — often a 'not just X but also Y' idea, here quality beyond access.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·