Government to check commercialisation of education, but not fees: Sibal
20 Feb 2010
The centre will not allow education to become a business, human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal said today.
The minister, however, dampened the hopes of parents who were expecting a restriction on fees, saying that the fees of private schools cannot be regulated and that each school had the right to fix the salaries of its teachers.
Speaking at the 37th annual meet of National Progressive Schools' Conference, a group of about 100 private unaided schools, in New Delhi, Sibal said the ministry will seek consensus among states to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act from 1 April 2010.
On 29 January 2010, Sibal had approved the model rules for the RTE Act and circulated it to the state governments in the meeting of the state education secretaries in New Delhi.
The minister admitted that there might be conflict of interest with several parties, especially state governments, on implementing RTE.
"Where there is a conflict between the RTE and the state legislation, we will try to clear the misunderstandings and build a national consensus," the minister said, adding that he will hold meetings with the state departments.