Educating Indians

Independent Revision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech on Independence Day

...........................We have already prepared a draft legislation and have initiated steps to build consensus on it. We will soon introduce a bill in parliament to this end.

I have often referred the 11^th five year plan as an educational plan. During this period the government had insightfully formulated an elementary education policy, ensuring all the children of our country getting free and compulsory education till the age of 14. The right to education act thus conceived, entitles all children with the right to get educated. But during the implementation of this Act, insights have been drawn which made us empower the rural and underprivileged students through monitory and material support, to get access to their rights. 

Newly formed Central Universities have also aided well to improve the higher educational sector. The Government has also found an acute lack of literacy among its citizen to understand the need for why our children must be educated. More emphasis is being given to imparting such awareness to the parents. We are hopeful that in due course of time notable results will emerge from these policies which will serve a concrete platform for further innovation and updating in the sector.

The 12^th Five year plan, soon to commence gives ample priority to health care but also judiciously emphasizes education at the to continue all the reformative policies conceived in the past seven years. As a part of this effort the government is all set to pass an Act which makes higher education free and compulsory for all children in the country. 

The new Indian generation who compete with the world in its technical excellence need great support from the government. Our educational policies should be updated to cardinally incorporate vocational and technical training from the elementary level onwards. Teachers should also take up this challenge by empowering themselves with the tools that IT sector provides to train students better. In short we have begun a revolution, which this government will take forward to success.  

"For a long time our country had no facility for health insurance for workers in the unorganized sector........................."