Maharashtra to bring Right to Education Bill in winter session

NAGPUR: The Maharashtra government intends to move a bill on the Right to Education at the Winter Session of the state legislature scheduled to be held in Nagpur in December.
  
Speaking to newspersons here, Minister for Education Vasant Purke today said if the bill was passed by the legislature, then Maharashtra would become the first state in the country to adopt such legislation.
  
The bill aims at implementing measures to ensure children's fundamental right to education, he said.
  
The bill would have a provision for the withdrawal of government facilities like ration card from parents who discouraged their wards from going to school, Mr Purke said. In addition, the bill would fix responsibility on educational institutions, managements, teachers  and supervising authorities since the problem of dropouts could be attributed also to factors at the institutional level, including 'boring teaching', the minister said.
  
The bill was being brought because the dropout rate between classes I and XII had been rising alarmingly in the state, Mr Purke  said.
  
The dropout rate among tribal students was 74 per cent, OBC and general category students 54 per cent and 59 per cent among scheduled caste students, he said.
  
The government was considering introducing agriculture as one of the subjects for classes VIII to X from the next academic session, considering the immense employment potential in the farming sector, Mr Purke added.