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India plans to achieve 'Education for all' by 2010

India plans to achieve the global target of 'Education For All' by 2010, five years ahead of the objective, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said on Tuesday.

"Under the 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' [Education For All] programme launched last year, we aim to cover about 200 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 years," Joshi told a high-level group meeting at Abuja in Nigeria.

He said this in a meeting convened to review the progress of the scheme, Education for All, by 2015.

Joshi said over the last two years the Indian government has been able to build on the national consensus to carry forward the EFA agenda. "Our government introduced a Constitution amendment bill in Parliament in 2001, to provide for free and compulsory education as a fundamental right for all children aged 6-14.

"The bill has been passed by both houses of Parliament in consecutive calendar years and now awaits a technical notification in the lower house regarding the year of passing of the bill," Joshi said. Subsequently, it would be sent to the state assemblies for ratification.

"Our plan document highlights the fact that education is a critical input in human resource development and is essential for the country's economic growth."

Joshi said under the EFA, the centre would provide resources to the states in the ratio of 85:15 till March 2002, 75:25 between 2002 and 2007, and 50:50 thereafter.

The funds required for the programme were estimated at US $ 20 billion over a ten-year period. The Centre would provide $14 billion and the states would contribute the remaining.

Joshi pointed out that at Dakar, the developed world had made a pledge that the EFA campaigns would not suffer in any country for lack of funds. "We are happy with the decision to initiate the EFA Fast Track for financing primary education programmes in 18 countries. We also note that another five countries, including India, have been identified for dialogue to address the 'data, policy and capacity gaps' to make them eligible for EFA grant finance."

Referring to the progress made by the country in reducing illiteracy, he said for the first time the absolute figures of non-literates has gone down by 31.9 million during the last decade, despite the increasing population. "Presently, nearly three-fourth of the male population and more than half of the female population are literate."

He said the education growth rate in this decade would be around 18 percentage points leading to an adult rate of 79 per cent by the year 2010. "This is close to the figure of 80 per cent we are expected to achieve by 2015 as per the Dakar goals," he said.

Joshi said the country has also achieved commendable success in removing illiteracy amongst women and providing education to girls.

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