Focusing on improving quality of education, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced that a new mechanism will be soon be put in place to continuously assess teachers and ensure participation of parents to keep a check on quality of teaching.

The announcement came during Singh’s address to the nation on the occasion of Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort.

“Now we will focus on improving the quality of education.

In the next few months we will put in place a system of continuous assessment of the benefit our children are getting from teaching.

“Participation of the community and parents would be ensured so that they can be satisfied with the quality of teaching,” Singh said addressing a crowd which had a large number of students in attendance.

Emphasising that children are the “biggest strength” of the country, he said if our children are provided with good education and are healthy, then their future would be bright.

“This is the reason why we have paid special attention to the needs of children in our policies and programmes. The education of children has been made mandatory by law. In 2006-07, only 93 per cent of children in the age group 6-14 years were getting admission in schools. Today, almost all children in this age group are being admitted to schools,” he noted.

More than 51,000 new schools have been opened in the country and about seven lakh teachers appointed in them in just the last two years, he said.

Talking about the mid—day—meal scheme, he said it provides nutritious meals in schools for about 12 crore children every day. “This is the biggest scheme of its kind in the world,” he added.

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