By NNN-PTI
New Delhi : Regretting that India lags behind industrial nations in terms of literacy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said the Government will soon bring a legislation to provide the right of education to every child.
“We will soon be introducing a bill providing the Right to Education to every child. This is the surest way of ensuring rapid inclusive growth in the long run,” he said at annual general meeting of the industry chamber FICCI here.
He also said the Government will soon launch a national mission for vocational education, details of which are being worked out.
Pointing out that the UPA Government has made education a priority area for public policy, the Prime Minister said, “there is no modern industrial economy in the world that does not have at least 80 per cent literacy. We are still below at 70 per cent.”
He further said the central gross budgetary support for education has been increased from less than 8 per cent in Xth plan to over 19 per cent in XIth plan, a three-fold increase in share and five-fold increase in actual outlays.
In addition to higher outlays for elementary and secondary education, he said the Government is also planning to set up 30 new central universities, 370 colleges in educationally backward districts and 6,000 top class schools in each blocks.
The Government will also set up 8 new IITs, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology, 7 IIMs, and 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.