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HRD Minister takes Unesco to task: The Pioneer
New Delhi, Nov 08: Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manhohar Joshi has flayed the UNESCO for making wrong projections on India in its 2003 Education For All Monitoring Report that was released on Thursday.
New Delhi, Nov 08: Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manhohar Joshi has flayed the UNESCO for making wrong projections on India in its 2003 Education For All Monitoring Report that was released on Thursday.
In this connection, Dr Joshi said here on Friday the report's findings that India will not be able to achieve gender parity targets for both the primary and secondary levels even by 2015, were based on outdated facts and projections. Dr Joshi was also upset with the UNESCO for projecting India's overall literacy rate at 52 per cent whereas the latest figure, according to the 2001 census, is 65 per cent.
Dr Joshi said that the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) has not considered the latest figures sent by India and had chosen to base its report on the 1991 census.
Underlining the communication gap between UIS's office in Montreal and the UNESCO office in Paris, Dr Joshi said that although data on the literacy rate using the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) figures taken in 1998-99 had been submitted by May this year, the changes were not incorporated in the UNESCO report, this is despite the fact that it included modifications until June. The NFHS estimates literacy rates for adults (over 15 years) at 59.9 per cent in 2000 and 61.3 per cent in 2001 while the figure used in the report stands at 50.3 per cent. "India is not alone as many member developing countries have voiced their discontentment with the UNESCO's failure in updating its records," he said.
Regarding gender parity, which is the focus of the upcoming high-level group meet organised by the UNESCO between November 10-12, he said: "We are poised to achieve gender parity in primary education much before 2015 and at the secondary level by 2015."
Confident of achieving 80 per cent literacy by 2011, he said that funds will be directed to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme targeted to reach 2.38 crore out-of-school children, providing them with eight years of quality education in the age group of six to 14 years by 2010. "The highest grants have been sanctioned to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, which are lagging behind. But the scheme has done well in the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram," he said. The UNESCO meet, which will focus on EFA and gender, will be attended by top dignitaries like Sri Lankan President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and Kyrghyz President Askar Akayev, along with ministerial level delegates from France, Brazil, Cuba and Pakistan.
The emphasis of the upcoming meet will be on obtaining rider-free loans from foreign donors including the World Bank, the DFID and the European Commission for India. On the accelerated efforts to include women in the field of education, he said that women are preferred as teachers under the SSA scheme and there are over a million women employed under the Aanganwadi scheme.
Dr Joshi said that the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) has not considered the latest figures sent by India and had chosen to base its report on the 1991 census.
Underlining the communication gap between UIS's office in Montreal and the UNESCO office in Paris, Dr Joshi said that although data on the literacy rate using the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) figures taken in 1998-99 had been submitted by May this year, the changes were not incorporated in the UNESCO report, this is despite the fact that it included modifications until June. The NFHS estimates literacy rates for adults (over 15 years) at 59.9 per cent in 2000 and 61.3 per cent in 2001 while the figure used in the report stands at 50.3 per cent. "India is not alone as many member developing countries have voiced their discontentment with the UNESCO's failure in updating its records," he said.
Regarding gender parity, which is the focus of the upcoming high-level group meet organised by the UNESCO between November 10-12, he said: "We are poised to achieve gender parity in primary education much before 2015 and at the secondary level by 2015."
Confident of achieving 80 per cent literacy by 2011, he said that funds will be directed to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme targeted to reach 2.38 crore out-of-school children, providing them with eight years of quality education in the age group of six to 14 years by 2010. "The highest grants have been sanctioned to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, which are lagging behind. But the scheme has done well in the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram," he said. The UNESCO meet, which will focus on EFA and gender, will be attended by top dignitaries like Sri Lankan President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and Kyrghyz President Askar Akayev, along with ministerial level delegates from France, Brazil, Cuba and Pakistan.
The emphasis of the upcoming meet will be on obtaining rider-free loans from foreign donors including the World Bank, the DFID and the European Commission for India. On the accelerated efforts to include women in the field of education, he said that women are preferred as teachers under the SSA scheme and there are over a million women employed under the Aanganwadi scheme.