D. Purandeswari

NEW DELHI: D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, on Tuesday said that UNESCO had apologised and agreed to correct the paragraph included in the Global Monitoring Report (GMR), 2007 claiming that children below 15 years in India were involved in armed conflict.

India had strongly contested the observation and called for a correction in the report, Ms. Purandeswari told reporters on her return from Cairo.

Nicholas Burnet, Director of Education for All (EFA) GMR (UNESCO) made this observation during a presentation on the `Global Monitoring Report 2007: Strong Foundations - Early Childhood Care and Education' at the Sixth High Level Group meeting on Education for All held in Cairo between November 14 and 16.

The Minister suggested that other countries could learn from the successful Indian experience in implementing schemes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-day Meal Scheme for hard-to-reach target groups and the achievements of the National Literacy Mission.

She elaborated on the innovative resource mobilisation methods for achieving the goal of EFA while referring to education cess and the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh being adopted by the Government.

"While India's ambitious Mid-Day Meal scheme attracted attention and there were queries on its implementation from countries like China and Egypt, there is a need to link education to the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). There is a need to bring in education in early childhood care," she said.

According to the Minister, India needed to concentrate on adolescents by stressing on training of teachers' programmes, and awareness material, particularly in the wake of high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

On reluctance on the part of the international agencies to fund India in the elementary education sector, Ms. Purandeswari said we had made it clear to them that we were not dependent on their funding. "The external donors have apprehensions over how effectively the fund would be utilised and how transparent the utilisation would be. We have evolved our own innovative mechanisms to raise funds including the education cess," she said.

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