Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Saturday stressed the need to improve the quality of education in schools and colleges across the country to take India forward.
"There is an urgent need to improve the quality of our education in schools and colleges than increasing the number of institutions if we have to the country forward," he told about 500 students at an interaction with them here.
Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the state, sought views and opinions of students on reforming the education system to improve the quality of learning and skills.
"Rahul asked our views on education, but did not give any specific assurance and his plans to reform education," Mithun, a undergraduate student from Christ University in the city, told reporters after the hour-long interaction at the Central College grounds in the city centre.
Besides students from city schools and colleges, students from eight outside institutions, including IIT Guwhati, New Delhi and Chennai participated in the interaction.
When Dushant, a class four student of Issac Newton English School here, told Gandhi that he would become the prime minister after the ensuing general elections, Gandhi replied that he (Dushant) would also become PM one day.
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"You will also become PM one day," Gandhi told Dushant, who came to the venue with his father, waving a flag of the National Students Union of India - the Congress' student wing.
Gandhi also interacted with a group of editors soon after arriving here from Belgaum, about 500km from here.
He will address a women's conference Sunday at Tumkur, about 70 km from here, and later participate in a road show in the Mysore region.