The Hindu : International / India & World : Foreign investment welcome in elementary education: Arjun Singh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 25, 2004

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International - India & World

Foreign investment welcome in elementary education: Arjun Singh

LONDON, JUNE 24. The Government is not averse to accepting foreign investment in elementary education, the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, said today.

Asked by Karan Thapar in an interview on BBC World whether the Government would be willing to accept foreign investment in elementary education, he said ``well, for that we can evolve a policy.

``At the moment, there is none. But we can certainly evolve a policy because once we have a reform regime, I don't see any difficulty. But the policy has to be formulated first.''

Asked further if foreign investment, even in elementary education, will be welcome if a properly formulated policy is worked out, Mr. Singh said ``absolutely.''

To a question if he does not refuse foreign investment and has an ``open mind,'' he replied ``absolutely''.

Asked how he would handle the ``howls of protest'' from the Left, the Minister said ``there won't be any protest... I think everyone will see the practical side of it also...''

The Minister said that taking education to the top of the political agenda would be his ``sole objective.'' ``That will be my endeavour and I'm sure with the help of everyone else, this will be achieved.''

Mr. Singh, however, conceded that his Government might not be able to meet its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) target of increasing public expenditure on education to 6 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product.

``We'll come very close but I don't think it will be achieved,'' he admitted. ``But we will achieve 5 per cent and perhaps even 5.5 per cent.''

On his general approach to ``detoxification'' of the last administration's education policies, Mr. Singh said, ``this has happened in the last five years in varied ways and in different places. But I'm not going about it in a hurry because that would create an impression that we are trying to do something in a vindictive manner or in a manner which does not do justice...''

Asked if he would reverse the political appointments made by his predecessor to leading educational organisations such as the Indian Council of Historical Research, the Indian Council for Social Science Research and the University Grants Commission, Mr. Singh said: ``All these bodies have a constitution.''

``They have procedures and I'm not a dictator who can say tomorrow, this man will be sent home. It's not done that way... ''

When it was pointed out that some supporters of the present Government have called for these appointments to be overturned, he said: ``That will be one of the things that will happen.''

— PTI

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Foreign investment welcome in elementary education: Arjun Singh