The Human Resource Development Minister Shri Arjun Singh has said that a national consensus is now visible on the overriding priority of Education For All (EFA) goals as well as the broad strategy for achieving them in a time bound manner. In the Foreword to a Report on Education For All "India Marches Ahead", which was released at the 4th Meeting of the high level group on Education For All at Brasilia, Brazil today, Shri Singh said that with this consensus we are now poised to make much faster progress towards EFA. He said India’s progress towards EFA must be viewed in the larger context of our pluralist constitutional democracy in which pace of development in a sector depends to a large extent on building up a broad national consensus on inter-sectoral priorities and sectoral strategies.
Making a reference to some of the significant initiatives taken by the UPA Government which came to power in May, 2004, Shri Singh said that the newly levied education Cess for quality universal elementary education will give filip to this programme by mobilizing an extra one billion dollars. He also said that efforts are being made to universalize nutritious cooked mid-day meal programme in all government and semi-government primary schools of the country. Referring to the EDUSAT he said that this versatile satellite will help the country to harness modern technology for delivery of education to even the hard-to-reach groups. Shri Singh also reiterated an un-ambiguous policy commitment for universalization of Early Childhood Care and Education and elimination of disparities on account of gender and social background.
The leader of the Indian delegation, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shri M.A.A Fatmi told the Meeing that during the period 1991-2001 India’s literacy rate had increased from 52% to 64.8% which represents an increase of almost 13%. Even more significantly, the number of illiterates in the country actually declined by some 28 million, despite the increase in our population during this period. Shri Fatmi expressed confidence of achieving the Dakar goal of 50% improvement in adult literacy level by 2015. "Our National Literacy Mission seeks to achieve a sustainable threshold literacy rate of 75% by 2007. Targeted efforts are being made to accelerate literacy rates in areas of the country where the female literacy rate is below 30%, while continuing education programmes have been initiated to provide a learning continuum to the efforts of the literacy campaign", he said.
Shri Fatmi recounted the overwhelming support being received from non-governmental bodies wishing to play a major role in the education sector.
"Large corporate business houses have joined voluntary agencies in their efforts to help us achieve the goals of EFA, both through contributions in cash and kind, as well as by bringing professional management expertise and experience to the sector. In several States, such public-private partnership models serve as an enduring testament to the increased awareness and concern of ordinary citizens about the need for education for all. The Indian Diaspora has also indicated its eagerness to contribute to this process, and I expect that they will play a greater role in the years to come", he said.
Shri Fatmi expressed concern about the inadequate priority that donor agencies have accorded to EFA. He said the so-called Fast Track Initiative continues to leave out countries that need assistance the most. Unless the developed world commits to greater support for EFA in the developing nations, the goals of the Dakar Framework may not be fully achieved, he said.