Making children stay in school big UPA achievement: Raju

Making children go to school is one of the biggest achievements of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister M. Pallam Raju said Friday.

Raju was speaking at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) world management conference being held at Miramar, located a short distance from the Goa capital Panaji.

"Making children go to school is one of the biggest achievements of this government; 96 percent children are in school because of the Right to Education Act. The midday meal scheme also feeds 11 crore children," Raju said.

The minister said the UPA government was keen on bringing about transformative education at all levels. A key thrust of the 12th Five Year Plan, he added, was improving the quality of education across schools, colleges and other educational institutions.

Defending the "no fail" policy up to Class 8, Raju said it was this one factor that had arrested the number of dropouts from schools, especially in rural areas.

"There was a tendency amongst parents in extremely rural areas to keep children at home if he failed in class. That has been curtailed," Raju said.