The target of 100 per cent literacy, the minister said, would be achieved in part by training school students to teach their illiterate parents and grandparents. The target of 100 per cent literacy, the minister said, would be achieved in part by training school students to teach their illiterate parents and grandparents.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday predicted that India would achieve 100 per cent literacy over the next five years and hoped that public and private schools would compete with each other in the new India. Javadekar was delivering the inaugural address at the Rajasthan government’s first Festival of Education, held in partnership with Dubai-based GEMS Education group. At Independence, the literacy rate was just 18 per cent, which now stood at 80 per cent, he said.

The target of 100 per cent literacy, the minister said, would be achieved in part by training school students to teach their illiterate parents and grandparents. Javadekar emphasised on making learning more enjoyable in order to check dropouts. He lauded the improvements made by the Rajasthan government in school education, especially the increasing competitiveness of the government schools.

He said the government’s efforts towards improving the quality of education in state-run schools would lead to an environment of healthy competition between these schools and private ones. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE’s minister of culture, education and youth affairs, said in his keynote address that education led to innovation, which helped in a nation’s development. CM Vasundhara Raje and School Education Minister Vasudev Devnani were also present on the occasion.

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