Bangalore, May 04: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today said educational infrastructure in the country needed to be strengthened at all levels to utilise the full creative potential of India's one billion people. "Overall improvement in quality and standard of education is also very much needed. One sees "tremendous hunger" for quality education even among the poor," he said inaugurating the Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research on the city's outskirts here. Parents wanted to give good education to their children and were prepared to pay a considerable sum from their earnings for this purpose, he said. While literacy rate in the country had touched 70 per cent, regional and social disparities still remained and this was disquieting, Advani said.
Despite the progress made since independence, many challenges remain and the two instruments that could help the society most in meeting these were; education and science and technology, he said.

The tenth plan, therefore, focused on achievement of total literacy and the "sarva shikhsa abhiyan" launched by the government was the biggest ever programme for universalisation of elementary education, he said.

Highlighting the importance of scientific research, he noted the number of students opting for a career in science was coming down as it was not very lucrative. This trend needed to be addressed with a sense of urgency, he said adding efforts must be made to recognise the country's scientists and project them as role models for younger generation.

Bureau Report