India has always been committed to provide quality education to one and all, cutting across economic and social strata. Inaugurating Ninth E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting on Inclusive, Relevant Quality Education for All in New Delhi, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Mr Shashi Tharoor said that the government has taken one major initiative in this regard. The enactment of the Right to Education Act in 2009, which guarantees free and compulsory education to the children of this nation, is truly historic decision. Through this act government engage to improve the present delivery system by making it sensitive to the needs of children, especially those belonging to disadvantaged groups and the weaker sections of the society. He said, this legislation consider ourselves privileged to serve the children of this country, and to confer upon them a constitutional right which would not only provide them with quality education, but also enable them to participate and contribute to society in responsible and creative ways. The Minister said that Education for All, EFA goals will not be achieved globally if they are not achieved in the E-9 countries. He also noted that some countries may face greater challenges than others in the meeting the EFA goals by the 2015 target date, and the quality problem is more acute in the development world, in part due to the rapid expansion of access. However, it is recognized that improving the quality of education and the equity of that quality is a global challenge. He underlined the need for a common action plan and mechanism to take the education
quality, equity of quality and learning effectiveness forward.
Our correspondent reports E-9 represent the nine highly populated countries namely Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan. Given that these countries were home not only to over half of the world’s population but also more than 70 per cent of the world’s adult illiterates, about two-third of whom are women and girls, and more than half of its out of school children, any significant progress made in these countries immediately would have positive impact on EFA.