Education Bill: Deshmukh drags his feet

If you are a Standard XII student, willing to take admission in a private unaided medical/engineering college, merit will be the determining factor.

No more will a fat donation upstage the meritorious. No more will a student need to juggle the overlapping dates of multiple entrance tests.

Sounds too good to be true? Yes, these are all still very hypothetical, merely on paper. All this would have happened had the education reforms proposed by the government been put into effect.

Unfortunately, private management trustees, including cabinet ministers owning private colleges, are hell-bent to stall the comprehensive education Bill. They have succeeded, it seems, and the students will have to grit and bear the commercial exploitation this year too.

For this, the ‘credit’ goes to chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has put on hold the proposed education Bill, arguing it requires more discussion.

He could, however, pass the buck, saying that he took the decision following protests by managements of various private institutions, as well as senior cabinet ministers.

The education ministry placed its proposal for debate in the last two cabinet meetings, but was foiled by the opposition both times.

A CMO official said, “A delegation of private management colleges called on the CM and urged him not to initiate the reforms this year.”

Dilip Walse Patil, minister for higher and technical education, said, the purpose of the Bill was not to control the private colleges. “It only wanted to restore the faith of students who complain against commercialisation of the  education system.”