States should utilize central funds in education sector: Prime Minister
merisarkar news service
New Delhi, January 16, 2010
Manmohan Singh in Kolkata
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that the state governments should properly utilise the central funds which the central government had invested for the education sector.
"Our government has raised public investment in education very steeply and never before has so much money been invested in education," he said in a function to mark 150th anniversary of St. Xavier's Collegiate School in Kolkata.
Prime Minister Dr. Singh touched upon his government's efforts to spread education and said the Centre has made universal access to education one of the cornerstones 'of our strategy of inclusive growth'.
"I am delighted to learn that the rate of literacy has been going up significantly in the past few years. I am also happy to learn that enrollment ratios are rising and drop-out rates falling," he said.
He hoped that every child in the country would be literate by the next decade. He said, "I wish to see every child in our country becoming literate over the next decade. We must aim for 100 per cent literacy all over
India."
Prime Minister Singh said he was also keen to see every child had access to school education within reasonable distance from home.
He recalled his childhood days when he had to walk miles to go to school. He said, "This should not be the lot of our children in future."
