Govt's commitment, quality of teachers vital in education:

Wipro Limited Chairman Azim Premji today highlighted the importance of the government's commitment and quality of teachers in the public education system.

"I think the problem in government education system is not the infrastructure or the course material. It is the quality of training of teacher and equally important is the commitment of the government in public education," he said.

Elaborating, he said, "I do not think you ever heard of a Prime Minister visiting public schools. Prime Minister visit States during a year of elections but very, very rarely you appreciate and see Prime Minister spending time in a public education institution."
 

Calling for more improvement in investing in education, he said, "we claim that we are spending 2.5 per cent (of GDP). But we do not even spend 2.5 per cent."

He said this should be compared with countries including China which spends an excess of five per cent on education."So we are way behind," he said.

"Empowering the teachers is more important in school education system. Creating an empowering environment to these teachers is the most important contribution we can make, he said.

He was delivering the keynote address at the 19th Polestar Award function, organised by Polestar Foundation, an initiative by city based Intellect Design Arena Private Limited here.

Stating that there has to be a "sustained and consisted" efforts in education, Premji said, "90 per cent of the cost of education accounts to the teacher."

"Apart from infrastructure which we put in as one time capex (capital expenditure). The quality of teacher is key in public education," he said.

Noting that a change in education system takes a very long time, he said, government was working on a new education policy.

"I think, if the recommendations of expert committees which are expected to be implemented in next six months, it will make for significant upliftment in terms of education in public domain," he said.

Referring to the number of teachers graduating every year, he said, "we graduate fewer teachers per year than what Finland does. Finland is a population of five million. Our population is of 1.3 billion.