PUNE: “The Right to Education (RTE) Act is a historic legislation, yet it will take time to be rolled out. Schools will need three years for setting up infrastructure and five years to get the faculty in place,” said the Union Minister for HRD, Kapil Sibal, who was in Pune to attend a convocation ceremony.

His top priorities include implementation of the RTE Act and taking the gross student enrollment from the present 12.4 per cent to 30 per cent by 2020, that is from 14  million to 42 million.

“Opening up the education sector to prepare grounds for higher education of these students passing out, bringing excellence through accreditation authority, putting up systems for women’s education, giving universities more autonomy and getting quality staff to run universities are also on the priority list,” said Sibal.

About a core curriculum for Maths and Science to have a common exam in the country to enter universities, Sibal said, “This has been endorsed by the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) Committee and a task force will prepare a final document. State education ministers are working with the Centre on this.”

On the Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, Sibal said that the human resource is in India and the expertise outside. “There are foreign universities collaborating with India already, imagine the situation with a law in place,” he said.

“State governments have been very collaborative, and I compliment them for this. RTE has been taken up as a national mission and politics is remote from it,” added Sibal. On his book of poems, Sibal said society was his inspiration, and the poems were a critique on India.

SIBAL’S GOALS

- Ensuring that education is not commercialised

- Making cheap credit available for those wanting to set up universities

- Making educational loans cheaper

- Ensuring no capitation fees are charged