The Government will spend Rs 500-600 crore this fiscal, and Rs 6,300 crore over the 12th Plan period to train teachers, a senior Government official said.

Further, the country is still short of six lakh teachers, according to Ms Anshu Vaish, Secretary (school education and literacy) in the HRD Ministry.

Inaugurating the International Policy Dialogue Forum on Teacher's Challenges for Education for All (EFA) in India in Delhi on Monday, the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), Mr Kapil Sibal, called for a system for continuous and comprehensive evaluation of teachers.

The meet was jointly organised by the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA (UNESCO) and HRD Ministry.

Mr Sibal said that for fulfilling the EFA agenda defined at the World Education Forum in 2000, there is a strong need for quantity as well as quality with regard to teachers.

“There is a problem that the E-9 countries and the global community are facing in terms of quality of the teachers. If India has to succeed in the 21{+s}{+t} century we need to address this issue very seriously,” the Minister added.

Noting that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which have the largest number of children and, hence, can yield the highest dividend, also rank lowest on the human development index, Mr Sibal said India needs to focus on these regions.

“In this manner we can prevent the demographic advantage turning into demographic disaster,” he said.

He added that the best minds in India and across the globe move towards investments which generate profit through liquid capital — such as investment banks or multinational companies and he called for greater policy focus on investing in children's education and to attract the “best minds” in teaching.

However, at about Rs 2.35 lakh crore the Government's expenditure on education stood at 3.85 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009-10.

> aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW