Bill making education Fundamental Right to be introduced in budget session — Joshi

The proposed Bill had raised a lot of dust as it had provided for compulsory education for all children in the age group of 6-14 years, ignoring children below the age of six.

The minister praised the Country Paper containing statistics about India’s achievements in the area of literacy. “The paper shows the heartening rate of growth of school enrollment for girls as compared to boys,” he said.

He pointed out that all amendments proposed by the Indian team at the recent 14th Halifax conference on education had been accepted by other member countries.

Joshi said the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan will also be launched by January.“The Government is trying to bring all children into the mainstream of education to enable them to read, write and comprehend. Once a child gets an opportunity to be literate, he becomes aware of his rights,” Joshi said.

He said community and private sector participation were a must to make India completely literate. “If India had to be educated speedily, community participation in education is imperative,” he said.

There also has to be an interaction between the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the corporate sector, especially in the field science and technology, he said. He said several proposals of private initiatives in setting up deemed universities are pending with the UGC.

But he clarified that most of the proposals related to agriculture, music, art, dance as well as science and technology.

On elementary education, Joshi said that Government is encouraging the open school system to promote the non-formal system of education among boys through TV channels like the 16-hour-long Gyan Darshan programme on Doordarshan.

“There is also a proposal to use the radio and the FM channel for the purpose,” he said.