Make education free, must, up to age 18: Karnataka to Centre

Karnataka government was pushing the Centre to amend the RTE Act to extend the provision of free and compulsory education up to the age of 18, from the present 6-14 category, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri said today.

Replying to a short duration discussion on implementation of RTE Act in the state, he said the Centre should share with the states financial burden of implementing the provisions.

The expenditure on implementing the legislation would run into thousands of crores of rupee in the coming years, and the Centre should clearly spell out on its share, Kageri said.

The Minister warned action against private managements refusing to implement the act, adding, the government would not accept "discrimination" (against students admitted under RTE Act).

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, V Sreenivas Prasad, H C Mahadevappa and N L Narendrababu (all Congress) lauded the act, and underlined the need to implement it strictly.

Participating in the discussion, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said quality of education at primary level in government schools is below-par, making parents to send their children to private institutions.

Expressing the view that the present generation of primary school students have tremendous IQ levels, he argued that teachers with mere TCH won't be able to impart quality education to the children, adding, successful completion of degree course should be made mandatory for them.

Yeddyurappa said the students are so bright and talented that he was not able to answer the questions posed to him by his grand-children.

He said standards in government hospitals and schools needed to be improved to the level of private ones. "People don't go to government hospitals because there is no guarantee that they will go back (return healthy)".