There is corruption in regulation of education: PM

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) Acknowledging that regulation and supervision of educational institutions is plagued by corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said regulation is, however, a necessary feature of liberalization and essential to the fair functioning of free markets.

"I do believe such regulation should be transparent and efficient. I share your concern about the problem of corruption in the field of regulation and supervision of educational institutions.

Our Government is committed to fighting such corruption and to ensuring free, efficient and transparent regulation of the educational system,'' Dr Singh said while launching the 'Global Education and Leadership Programme' here.

Most studies of Government-funded school programmes showed that one of the weaknesses of public education was the quality of teachers. ''I recognize the need to improve remuneration as one way of addressing this problem. But, it is not by money alone that we can improve the quality of teachers and the quality of our schools.

Money is a necessary but not a sufficient condition. '' Along with better remuneration there was need for greater commitment and, moral values and public opinion that can spur improvement in education.

Civil society must play a greater role in demanding better quality education. Bringing schools under the supervision of local communities can help in this regard, he said.

It was a sad reality that both in tje public sector and the private sector far too much attention was paid to the hardware of education and not enough to the software, namely, the quality of teachers and of facilities offered, including libraries, Dr Singh said.

''I do recognize that the recent growth in the educational sector in our country has outpaced the government's ability to monitor, to regulate and to guide this growth. As a result many of you consider the Government as a roadblock rather than as a facilitator. Many of you have come to view regulatory institutions as your adversaries rather than your partners. '' UNI SN Mir GC2331