More importance for secondary education in 11th plan:Sen

Tiruchirapalli, Jan 8 (UNI) More importance would be given for secondary education in the 11th plan, planning commission member Prof Abhijit Sen said.

In an informal chat with reporters here last night, Dr Sen said similarly, there would be significant rise in spending for higher education too. Though the allocation for both secondary and higher education had not been finalised yet, the Planning Commission would give the same attention at par with elementary education and at least two-thirds of funds would be utilised for secondary and higher education, he said.

To a query, Prof Sen said he was against the goal of utilising six per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for education over the years, as the actual expenditure was a little more than one-third of the allocation for education in the budget.

On the country's economic growth, he said the current pace was sustainable and inflation now at four to five per cent was normal.

UNI