CM announces panel for common school system

Sri Saibal Gupta , Sec , ADRI (extreme left ) along with CM

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced the formation of a commission for common school system in the state. The commission will have a tenure of ten years. Delivering the valedictory lecture at a workshop on 'Common School System and Right to education', Nitish promised uniform and quality education to all without any segmentation on socio-economic grounds. The workshop was organised by Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI). Participating at the workshop, HRD minister Brishen Patel said although in right to education existed in India, right to equality for quality education was sadly missing. Participating in the workshop, HRD commissioner M M Jha said "progressive forces" working in the field of education had welcomed the provision in the common minimum programme (CMP) for allocation of 6 per cent of GDP on education. Jha said the government revived and established as many as seven Advisory Board of Education (CABE) panels to make reforms of import. "The most important among them was making right to education, a fundamental right under Article 21A of the Constitution," he said. The CABE panels finalised a draft Bill in June 2005. "However, the Bill overlooked the measures for a common school system which was a commitment made in the 1986 education policy," Jha said. Former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey, who presided over the workshop, said the present parallel layers of education for different sections of society had resulted in two-thirds of the nation's children getting poor quality of education. "It is very clear that the Centre is trying to absolve itself of its responsibility by claiming that it is allocating sufficient funds through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan," he said. He emphasised that commercialisation of education had to be stopped as it was dividing the entire nation on "good" and "bad" quality education. ADRI member secretary Saibal Gupta, while addressing the workshop, said India thrived on the philosophy of "Vasudeva Kutumbakum" where peace goes hand-in-hand with development. "In such a scenario, quality education to all is a must in order to carve out a niche in the global market," Gupta said.