Make education accessible and affordable: Pranab

Emphasising on qualitative expansion of education, President Pranab Mukherjee today said education should stand on the three pillars of accessibility, availability and affordability.
"The objective of education should be qualitative expansion over physical expansion. Only 0.4 per cent of the budget allocation for education is spent on research. This has to increase," Mukherjee said here.
"The state and central governments have to work together to improve the quality of education," the President said at the closing ceremony of the year-long golden jubilee celebrations of the prestigious Pandu College here.
"There are a large number of educational institutions across India, students enrolment has increased substantially. There is tremendous expansion. But still there is a gap in terms of quantity and quality", he said.

"In many areas meritorious students do not have access to higher education. Education should stand on the three pillars of accessibility, availability and affordability," Mukherjee said.
"We must ensure that students have education at their doorstep. Both the state and central governments have introduced scholarships and soft loans. But much needs to be done," he said.
"The Knowledge Commission of India has made an observation that there is a quiet crisis in quality of education. Not a single university or institute of technology of India finds a place in the list of top 200 universities of the world," Mukherjee regretted.