'Nother Brick In The Wall
The Right To Education Act (full text) was passed recently and has been widely lauded. There are 3 ways of looking at this, in increasing order of optimism:
1. Chaos ensues
Redefining illiteracy
If all goes according to plan, in about 20 years, we would have produced nearly 350 million graduates which is almost doubling the current work force of the country. Since the number of opportunities would not have doubled in 20 years, this would mean that we raise the bar for getting a job. Literacy would no longer be the ability to read and write but would be the ability to procure as many degrees as possible. An undergraduate would be looked down upon and the race for better grades, higher education, admissions into reputed institutes would worsen significantly.
Chasing unrest
Take a dollop of insufficient jobs, add a pinch of reverse brain drain and mix well with a false sense of entitlement. As it comes to a boil, sprinkle a generous dose of discrimination based on educational institute and add economic uncertainty according to taste. Finally, garnish with a little mob mentality and you have the perfect recipe for widespread riots and internal conflict.
Learning from the past
Our education system is based on what was the need of the industrial age: a focus on math and science. We live in a completely different world today and what's worse, it's a rapidly changing one. Hundreds of millions of people educated in an archiac system are going to be woefully out of place in the new world.
And I haven't even spoken about the quality of education, the lack of teachers, the abysmal infrastructure or the lack of accountability.
2. Nothing really changes
To be fair, the act is quite well intentioned and noble and it will be a good deterrent to child labor and child marriages. It is great to have the law on your side when you are growing up and it is great to not be forced into doing something you don't want to. The promise of building more schools and training millions of teachers will probably not come through fully, not all children will actually go to school and nothing of any real note will actually change. Things will remain more or less the same or probably a shade better.
3. A dent in formed in the universe
This is a fantastic chance to revolutionize education in a simple 2-step program - First, change what is being taught and how it is being taught. And second, make it accessible to every single child in the country. This is probably one of the few times in history that lets us start with a complete clean slate, re-imagine all our preconceived thoughts about education and design a framework for the future. This is one of those times when we can dream big and be assured that the tools to realize the dream exist.
Personally, the worst case scenario would be the 2nd option, though i fear that the 1st is most likely. Having said that, our generation has the gift of being in the right place at the right time and wouldn't it be wonderful to leave behind a legacy.

