Govt to rectify right to education act, says Education Minister

Education Minister, Maharashtra Shri Vinod Tawde during his visit to Vivekanand Education Society, Chembur

Mumbai, February 21:  Education Minister Vinod Tawde today said the right to education (RTE) act has been misunderstood widely and the State government would rectify it through amendment.

Interacting with the students, parents and teachers at Vivekanand Education Socieyt (VES) campus at Chembur, the Minister pointed out that the Act originally did not promote promotion of all students without exam upto 8thclass.

 “If a student fails in any class before 8th, the teachers need to give special one month coaching and make him pass and study thoroughly before going to the next class. It has been misunderstood and schools did not fail the students. The State Government is planning to correct it,” he said, in reply to a question by a student.

To another question, the minister said the government would put emphasis on vocational training. He pointed out that India would be the youngest country in the world by 2030 and would need to supply human resources to the world. “The average age of Americans will be 60-65, Chinese will be around 45-48 while average age of Indians will be 30-35. The Centre has chalked out 25,000 skills for vocational training under the Skill India campaign,” he said.

Later speaking at the function to celebrate the 89th birth anniversary of Hanshuji Advani, the founder of VES which runs 26 institutions now, the Minister said the current education system was based on the motto of `Indians by blood and British by the taste’ and the present government wanted to change this very perception about the system.

On the question of updating the syllabus especially for the technical education, Mr.Tawde disclosed that the government was setting up a pool of faculties which would help to revise the syllabus. “It is hard to get specialists as faculty for medical and technical education. The pool would help in this regard,” he added.

Reacting to a call by the minister to transform VES into an autonomous private university, VES president Mahesh Tejwani said the society was happy and willing to move in that direction. “We are eager to work towards autonomous university to improve the quality of education for the students who are the future of our nation and drive the development,” he said.