NEW DELHI, 11 November 2003 — Quality education must be made affordable for all children, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said yesterday at the inauguration of a global meet on education in New Delhi.
The three-day Education for All summit, attended by representatives from about 30 countries, is organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and India’s Ministry of Human Resources Development.
“The difference between the poor man’s school and the rich man’s school is becoming starker,” Vajpayee said. “Since quality education is crucial for capturing the opportunities in the emerging knowledge economy, this difference will further widen the already unacceptable divide between the have and the have-nots.”
In a statement released yesterday UNICEF, the UN’s fund for children, said school fees should be done away with all over the world.
Last Thursday UNESCO launched its “Education for All Global Monitoring Report” which noted that girls in most developing countries face “sharp discrimination in access to schooling”.
Gender disparities in education are prevalent in 54 countries, including 16 in sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and India, it said. The report is believed to be the most comprehensive survey of education trends worldwide and measures efforts made in all parts of the world to enroll more girls in schools in 2000.
Vajpayee said India had taken a “revolutionary” step through its Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (universalization of elementary education) program, which promises free and compulsory quality education for children from 6-14.
The summit is a follow-up on the commitments made at the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000, where the international community pledged to eliminate gender disparities in enrolment in primary and secondary education by 2005.
India, Russia to Sign 10 Pacts During Vajpayee’s Visit to Moscow
Defense and economic cooperation will take top priority on Vajpayee’s “substantive” three-day visit to Moscow, India’s foreign secretary said yesterday.
The Indian leader arrives in Moscow today at the beginning of a week-long three-nation tour of Russia, Tajikistan and Syria.
“India and Russia will also sign 10 agreements on cooperation in the scientific, space, business and industry, earthquake research, inter-banking and trade spheres,” Kanwal Sibal told a press conference of the Russian leg of the tour. Sibal, however, declined to confirm whether India would sign the contract for the purchase of the $1.5 billion Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
