Education should be left to universities: Kadam

PUNE: Hinting that the government should not have any role to play in educational matters, state industries minister Patangrao Kadam on Sunday remarked that decisions regarding education such as admissions, fees, examination and curricula should be taken only by the universities concerned.
Universities have been formed as per law and deemed university status too is allowed after a thorough scrutiny by the University Grants Commission, hence only universities should take decisions about educational matters, Kadam said while speaking to news reporters at his residence on Sunday.
Hinting that the government should not have any role to play in matters like admissions, Kadam stated that decision making should be vested with the universities to avoid chaos at the time of admissions. "Each university should take decisions depending on the conditions prevalent in their jurisdiction", he added.
Referring to fierce demonstrations against him by Students Federation of India during a function on Saturday and subsequent blocking of his motorcade, Kadam said that Bharati Vidyappeth (BV) has not done anything wrong. "The activists do not have complete information and they mislead people", he retorted.
Kadam clarified that BV has given admissions to backward class (BC) students on merit alone as per the directives of the Supreme court. "We have filled the BC and Other Backward Class (OBC) quota and have asked Supreme Court''s permission to fill the other constitutional reservations", he stated.
Kadam further clarified that contrary to reports the committee comprising state ministers Padamsinha Patil, Satish Chaturvedi and himself was not appointed to fix the fee structure. "We were asked by the chief minister to convene a meeting of heads of private educational institutions in our areas to discuss what fee could be charged", he said. He hoped that the controversies about admission and fee structure would now be settled following appointment of two committees by the chief minister on Saturday.