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The government needs to step up investment in education as it is less than the global average, says Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd.
Addressing the 19th Annual Polestar Awards, Premji said the government’s claim of 2.5 per cent of GDP in education has not been completely realised and the current spend should be utilised with reason. “China spends about 5 per cent of GDP on education and the world’s average stands at 6 per cent,” he added.
PoleStar Foundation, which instituted the PoleStar Award in 1998, recognises outstanding talent among Indian media professionals.
He felt that consistent efforts and investments should be made to improve infrastructure, teacher training and quality of education.
Not up to the mark“About 83 per cent of the primary and secondary schools in the country are run by the government but there are not many that measure up to a standard,” Premji said.
He was of the view that the new education policy, which is expected to come out in the next six months, will provide significant uplift to public education.
Premji also emphasised the need for early childhood education by integrating anganwadis with the current education system. “There are 13 lakh anganwadis in the country. We need to invest more in them,” he added.
He pointed out that a study done by Azim Premji Foundation revealed that public education offers better quality education than private schools. Additionally, the proximity of public schools encourages parents to send their girl child to school. But the challenge is the dearth of quality and committed teachers, who could make a difference, he stated.
“Empowering teachers in government schools by improving teacher education is key to improving public education,” he noted.
Another challenge, according to him, is the lack of quality teacher training institutions. There are over 2,000 institutions in the country but over 95 per cent of them are bogus.
They lack the infrastructure and right staff. “There is a need for government intervention to shut down such institutions and create capacity for training teachers,” he said.
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