Centre may draw lesson from Maha

MUMBAI: Taking a cue from the Maharashtra government to identify bogus students in the state, the Union government too may start a drive across the nation.
"In Nanded district itself we identified over a lakh bogus students. Later a similar drive was initiated across the state, which has been appreciated by all sections of society and political parties cutting across party lines. Identifying bogus students will help the government in saving money as the fund is spent on students which actually does not exist. I will recommend to the Union government to initiate a nationwide drive to fix one of the loopholes in the existing education system," Darda said.
Darda said this after his appointment as a member on the committee of the central advisory board of education (CABE). The human resource development (HRD) ministry has formed the committee to prevent unfair practices in the school education department sector in India.
The student verification drive initiated on a pilot basis by Nanded collector Shirkar Pardeshi showed that 1.4 lakh of the seven lakh students are a?bogus. Shocked with the statistics, the government ordered a statewide drive to identify bogus students in the government-aided and managed schools.
Last week education officer in charge of primary education for Nanded district Shankar Waghmare was suspended for his alleged involvement in covering up irregularities of the schools and not following the administrative procedures while granting permission to educational institutes.
The minister might even suggest to the Union government to have a legislation that stops arbitrary fee hike by educational institutes. The Maharashtra state legislature has already passed a bill that regulates the fee structure of all schools in the state.
Following concern expressed by the Union government in its meeting in June over the increasing complaints about educational institutes indulging in a malpractices the committee was formed.
The committee, headed by HRD minister of state D Purandeswari, includes Darda and education ministers from Delhi, TN, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal and Meghalaya. Other than politicians the committee has members from civil society and experts from the filed of education.