PM for fast disbursal of education aid

Vajpayee reminded the donor countries that in Dakar they had made the pledge that ‘‘no country seriously committed to basic education will be thwarted in the achievement of this goal by lack of resources.’’

The Prime Minister said that ‘‘universal education alone would not do’’ and it was time to ensure ‘‘quality education’’ for the poor. Otherwise the gap between the rich and poor will widen and the poor will continue to lose out in the age of ‘‘Knowledge Economy’’. ‘‘Quality education has to be brought within the reach of the common man,’’ he asserted.

Vajpayee was realistic enough to suggest that the economics of a poor family would not change overnight and girls would be expected by parents to help in domestic chores. He advised planners to take these aspects into consideration when they devised their education programme for the girl child.

And before Vajpayee spoke, the battle over UNESCO figures dominated the evening’s proceedings with Joshi reiterating that ‘‘the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has not been able to capture this progress (made by India in meeting its education goals) despite our having furnished the data.’’

A sulking Joshi complained: ‘‘It (The UNESCO) has included in the list of countries with a growing population of illiterates…’’

On the other hand, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura said: ‘‘I would like to compliment the Monitoring Report team afor once again producing a report of high quality.’’

And as though in response to Joshi’s accusations, he said: ‘‘I am certain that the UNESCO Institute of Statistics is doing a fine job, we should recognise that the collection, analysis and presentation of statistics inevitably involve a time lag.’’