Mumbai: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said that at least 15 crore children and youth are out of the country’s formal education system and around 25 crore population is below the basic definition of literacy. Pradhan said this in his address on ‘Employment Generation and Entrepreneurship’ during the annual conference organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Union Education Minister said, “If we look at the number of children and youth in the age group of 3 to 22 years in government, private and charitable schools, anganwadis, higher educational institutions and the entire system related to skill, then this number is 35 crores.” Whereas the population of this age group in the country is 50 crores. He said that this means that at least 15 crore children and youth are out of the formal education system of the country.
Pradhan said that in the census conducted after independence, it was found that 19 percent of the population is literate. He said that according to the figures of 75 years of independence, the literacy rate in the country has reached 80 percent. This means that 20 percent of the population of about 250 million people falls below the basic definition of literacy. Underlining the importance of the new National Education Policy in this direction, Pradhan said that it is not just a document but a blueprint to achieve the goals in the next 25 years when we will complete 100 years of population. He said that for the first time, our government has combined skills with education and this underlines the new initiative towards livelihood.
