Improvement in quality education need of the hour: PM

Varanasi, Mar 15 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the university system has to undergo revolutionary changes to improve the quality of the higher education in the country.

''We have to bring about qualitative changes to come at par with the developed nations as far as the higher education is concerned,'' Dr Singh said while addressing the 90th convocation of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) here this.

India had managed to establish solid and diverse higher education system post-independence but the facts and figures suggested it still lagged far behind the developed nations, Dr Singh pointed out, adding that''we have enough reasons to be proud of our education system, but a lot was still to be done.'' ''The Central government had increased the expenditure on education five fold during the 11th five year plan, but the monetary considerations were only the support mechanism...real thing would be to improve the quality in the education infrastructure,'' the PM said.

Lacing his speech with some statistics, he said only 10 per cent out of the total number of students, elibigle to get college education got admissions, while this figure is as high as 40-50 per cent in most of the developed nations.

Furthermore, he said that two third of the universities and 90 per cent of the colleges were below par as far as the quality of education was concerned.

The PM said the common perception was that the curriculum in most of the varsities was not in sync with the employment needs of the youth.

''That is why the revolutionary changes in the universities is need of the hour.'' he noted.

Dr Singh said the universities of the country had to move along with the world and would have to develop experts in various fields.

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