Right to education act within month: Purke

Mumbai, Jul 18 (UNI) Maharashtra School Education Minister Vasant Purke today said the government will enact right to education legislation within a month.

He informed the assembly that the controversial sex education will be introduced despite all opposition.

Mr Purke made these announcements during the reply on the discussion on school and higher education, which was continuing since yesterday.

Mr Purke said the draft of the right to education bill is ready and will be submitted before the Cabinet in a month and later it will be enacted into a law. The draft plan of school education will be finalised in two months, he declared.

Speaking about sex education, the Minister said this will be introduced definitely and the government would consider the views and opinions of education experts and legislators on the same.

He said 70:30 formula for the admission process in the junior colleges will be introduced acros the state. According to this formula, the state has directed the educational institutes to enrol 70 per cent of students from the districts where colleges are located and 30 per cent from outside.

Mr Purke said 900 colleges have been allotted more classes to avoid the rush for admission to Standard XI and the colleges have been allowed to increase the intake capacity of students by 10 per cent every year.

He also challenged the Opposition legislators Subhash Desai (Sena) and Eknath Khadse's (BJP) allegations that there were 350 mistakes in Kumarbharati (Marathi) book, asking them to prove the same.

However, today's discussion and reply was again marred by the absence of the Minister at the end of the discussion, which led to four adjournments.

Higher and Technical Education Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said the deemed university will not be allowed to give affiliation to the courses, which are run by other institutions.

''Deemed universities are supposed to be run only as campus universities,'' he emphasised.

He said that the minority status institutions will not be allowed to give the seats by charging higher fees.

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