The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today said that a well educated population is important for the economic and social progress of the country. Felicitating the award winning teachers on the eve of Teachers' Day in New Delhi, Dr. Singh said, the poor levels of student learning continue to be a major concern. He said, as the country moves ahead, there is a need to have a clear shift in the strategy from a focus on inputs, access and enrolment to what goes on in classrooms and schools. The Prime Minister said, there is a need to set up transparent and reliable systems for tracking attendance of children in a truly meaningful way. He stressed the need to put in place a system of continuous assessment of the benefit the children are getting from their education.
Prime minister said, teachers have to be integral part of policy-making, governance, management and day-to-day instructional strategies and decision making. He said, the empowerment of teachers would have to be the key component of the educational reform process. Dr. Singh urged the teachers to develop in children, independence of thought, action and the capacity for taking carefully considered decisions. He said, through teachers the nation aspires to build in the children, a commitment to the values of democracy, equality, social justice, freedom, secularism and respect for human dignity.
Dr. Singh said that the government has substantially increased public spending on education since 2004-05. He mentioned education expenditure as a percentage of the GDP has increased from 3.3 per cent in 2004-05 to 4 per cent 2011-12. Per capita public expenditure on education has increased from 888 rupees in 2004-05 to 2,985 in 2011-12. He said the enhanced outlays have helped in a massive expansion of the educational infrastructure and sanction of additional post of teachers on a large scale. He said, due to these efforts the country has made significant progress in improving access to education. Enrolment of children in primary schools has now reached near-universal levels. Dr Singh said, the gender gap in elementary education has declined.