Centre to invest more in science education

The Centre will join hands with state governments and universities to initiate a new revolution in modern education, especially in the area of science, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"India needs to take a quantum jump in science education and research, and has to harness the full potential of modern science and technology to realise its development ambitions," he said. The Prime Minister was addressing the 95th Indian Science Congress that began at the Andhra University here on Thursday.

The Prime Minister arrived here on Wednesday on a two-day visit to Visakhapatnam.

The Centre is committed to investing more in education, especially science education, and the gross budgetary support for this purpose has been stepped up from 7.7 per cent in the 10th Plan to 19 per cent in the 11th Plan, he pointed out.

The Centre is planning to fund 30 new central universities, five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, seven new Indian Institutes of Management and 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

"The central government is also launching a mission on vocational education and skill development through which it will open 1,600 new industrial training institutes and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new skill development centres across the country. We will ensure that over 100 lakh students get vocational training annually. A detailed plan for implementing these proposals will be spelt out in the next six months," he said.

To enlarge the pool of scientific manpower and foster research in science, he said, a programme entitled 'Innovation in science pursuit for inspired research' is being launched.

"Under this programme, 10,00,000 school students will be given science innovation scholarships of Rs 5, 000 each over the next five years. This plan will also support scholarships for higher education providing 10,000 scholarships of Rs 1 lakh per year to attract talented students to enroll in BSc and MSc courses," he said.