Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday called for collective efforts by all stakeholders to make India 100 per cent literate in the near future.
Inaugurating the centenary celebrations of National College at Tiruchirappalli, the Vice President expressed disappointment over the fact that India still has 18-20 per cent illiterate population even after 70 years of independence.
He called for stepping up the pace of literacy campaigns, especially those that have an impact on adult literacy, according to an official release.
Expressing his concern that none of the premier Indian Universities figured in the top 300 global list of institutions, the Vice President said that though India was home to premier institutions like IISc, IIT, IIM, only 56 institutions were featured in the 500 universities that made it to the 'Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020'.
Noting that India was once known as `Vishwaguru' and the education capital of the world, he urged universities and other institutions to regain the past glory so that India once again attains its position of eminence in education field.
Pointing out that education was the key to fast-tracking development while ensuring social justice and equal opportunities to all, the Vice President called for enhancing investment in education from the current 4.6 percent of GDP to 6 percent of GDP as mandated by the NITI Aayog.
He urged big businesses to come forward and strengthen educational institutions across the country. "The future of India's education lies in effective and efficient models of public-private partnerships," he added.
He also called for immediate steps to bring a shift from "rote-learning to conceptual and application-oriented learning" to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, research and skill development to realize India's demographic dividend and make it a manufacturing hub and human resources capital of the world.
( With inputs from ANI )