Come November 11, the Education Day, head masters of 13 lakh primary schools across the country will be reading out a prime minister's letter in the students' assembly, marking the formal launch of a year-long campaign for the Right to Education (RTE).

The highly personalised message of Dr Manmohan Singh, which is being translated into 14 Indian languages to cover every region, is to encourage children, parents and six million school teachers to make extra efforts to realise the RTE goal of the UPA government.

Head masters will mount the RTE campaign by reading out the PM's message in the assembly, while minister of human resources development Kapil Sibal will launch it in Haryana's Mewat, one of the country's most educationally backward district.

Called "Shiksha ka haq" (right to education), this is first of its kind of drive in the history of social awareness campaign, which also involves over two lakh volunteers and hundreds of the community-based organisations to run the door-to-door campaign for one full year up to November 11, 2012 to help 13 lakh elementary schools become RTE compliant by March 31, 2013, the deadline set for states to implement the law in letter and spirit.

The PM's involvement in the campaign makes it very special. The modalities of the campaign were finalised a fortnight ago by the RTE national advisory council when it was felt that the PM's involvement be sought to give the drive an edge.

"The PM instantly agreed. His letter is ready. We will start posting it now," said council member Vinod Raina. He pointed out that this is for the second time that the prime minister is associating with the cause as he had earlier dedicated the RTE to the nation in a televised address on April 1, 2010.

In a significant move, the advisory council decided to celebrate the Education Day, commemorating the birth anniversary of independent India's first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam, among children and teachers in Mewat than in the high-security Vigyan Bhawan here.