“Further, our drive towards education should benefit those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid,” he said. Although several initiatives have been launched to raise the quality of education, “much more needs to be done” towards that end, Mukherjee stressed.
There is a need to promote a culture of excellence and provide quality education for all with a special focus on marginalised and disadvantaged groups.
“The thrust should also be on inclusive education with expansion, equity and excellence in education across all levels,” he said, adding that there is also a need to lay special emphasis on female literacy as well as on the synergy between literacy and skill development.
“We must also focus on technology-enabled learning in all institutions across the country and empower the faculty and students to harness technology for improving the quality of education,” he said.
He stressed that it was important to inculcate science and mathematics among students as these were powerful tools for investigating and understanding the problems facing the world.
Noting that innovation would determine the factor of growth in the future, he said India has dedicated the period 2010-20 as the decade of innovation and science.
