Uday Samant, an Indian politician from Maharashtra, is the current education minister of Maharashtra. He began his political career in Nationalist Congress Party.
Education is also considered to be the basic right of every human individual in this modern economic world. Even the less important and menial jobs in the companies are also expecting at least a school education. Maharashtra is among the top states that offer quality education, and they hold direct administration of well-established universities and colleges. However, only after 1984, the government's well-established ministry for the education department was formed. The current education minister of Maharashtra is Uday Samant.
Current Education Minister of Maharashtra
Uday Samant is the education minister in the state of Maharashtra. Uday Samant is an Indian politician from Maharashtra, Ratnagiri district in India. Before, he was with the NCP party, the Nationalist Congress Party. Later, he quit the NCP party in 2014 to join Shiv Sena.
Uday Samant is the current MLA, the Member of Legislative Assembly from Ratnagiri Vidhan Sabha constituency of Konkan, Maharashtra, as a member of Shiv Sena. Uday has been elected to Vidhan Sabha for four consecutive terms in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
Contact details of Uday Samant, education minister of Maharashtra.
| Education Minister of Maharashtra | Uday Samant |
| Address | Minister of Higher Education and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, Mantralaya, Mumbai. |
| Phone | (022)-22025188,22024654 |
| min_schedu[at]maharashtra[dot]gov[dot]in |
Political Career of Uday Samant
Uday Samant achieved his notable political career in 2004 as an elected member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Various positions holded by the current education minister of Maharashtra, Uday Samant, are as follows.
| Position | Service Period |
| Guardian Minister of Sindhudurg District | 2020 |
| Minister of Higher and Technical Education | 2019 |
| Re-elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly | 2019 |
| Chairman of Housing and Area Development Authority of Maharashtra | 2018 |
| Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena Party | 2018 |
| Samparkh pramukh of Pune City | 2017 |
| Re-Elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly | 2014 |
| Guardian Minister of Ratnagiri district | 2013 to 2014 |
| Minister of State for Urban Development, Maharashtra | 2013 to 2014 |
| Re-Elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly | 2009 |
Departments Under Maharashtra Ministry of Education
Maharashtra may not be the country's biggest state, but its size is very big and is bigger than many European countries. The number of schools in the entire state of Maharashtra is close to 7,000, and the colleges are more than 500. Controlling all these schools and colleges will not be an easy task. So the education minister has given four basic works for the ministry and divided the entire ministry into these four works.
Various departments come under the ministry of education.
- State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Maharashtra
- MBT PCR, Maharashtra Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research
- Minority and Adult Education
- MSCERT, Maharashtra State Council of Education Research and Training
- Maharashtra State Council of Examinations (MSCE)
Directorate of Higher Education Maharashtra
Maharashtra was one of the few states that already had an established university with colleges working under it. At that point in time, all the control of the educational institutions was given to the directorate, and the ministry for the education department was not yet formed. In 1984, the government of Maharashtra realized that the number of educational institutions is very high, and to control all these institutions, a ministry is required.
Below are the three functions of the Ministry of Education in Maharashtra.
Planning and Coordination
Planning and Coordination is the first and foremost department; the department employees only deal with the planning aspects of the future courses and syllabi and make sure that they are implemented smoothly without disturbing the students' academic year.
Academic Functions
If one observes, one will find out that the syllabus taught in the colleges is given by the education ministry itself. Whether public or private, all the colleges will be affiliated to public universities and these public universities give out the syllabus for all the colleges. The ministry of education controls all these public universities. So they have the responsibility to update the syllabus with new aspects developed worldwide every day.
Advisory Functions
There will be a lot of problems during the execution of the planned work. It is because reality will always be different from what you plan. Therefore, this department will only take care of the advisory action like ranking the universities and colleges, ensuring that the proper infrastructure is maintained.
Universities Under Direct Administration of Maharashtra Government
Under the directorate, the administration was done in a more centralized way, and only one person taking responsibility to look after more than 1000s of institutions was not practically possible. So to decentralize the power and make it more organized, the ministry for higher education was introduced, and the head office for this department is located in Pune. The ministry has taken control over all the public universities from the year 1984 and few private colleges.
Let us look at the universities' list under the administration of the ministry of education, Maharashtra.
| Non‐Agricultural Universities | Location |
| Mumbai University, Mumbai | Mumbai |
| S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai | Panvel |
| Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune | Pune |
| Shivaji University, Kolhapur | Solapur |
| Solapur University, Solapur | Solapurr |
| Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad | Aurangabad |
| Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded | Nanded |
| North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon | Jalgaon |
| Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati | Amravati |
| Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur | Nagpur |
| Gondwana University, Gadchiroli | Gadchiroli |
| Kavi Kulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Nagpur | Ramtek & Nagpur |
| Yashwantrao Chavan Open University, Nashik | Nashik |
