Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday demanded that a law be made to allocate at least 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to education.
Speaking at the Special Meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) convened by the Union HRD Ministry to discuss and finalise the National Education Policy, he said the preamble to the policy should state that “providing good quality education would be the responsibility of government through schools.”
While lauding few provisions of the policy, Mr. Sisodia also sought to point out that unless there was a law which binds governments to allocate funds, the policy per se will not result in the transformation of education in India.
“Quality of education in government schools should be at par with the private schools. Only 5% of children get access to quality education, the rest have been getting an average quality education. It needs to change,” he said.
Mr. Sisodia also opposed the proposal of a private education board calling it a “dangerous idea” as these boards would “promote private schools and further dilute the responsibility of government in school education.”
