The UPA government was not averse to the private sector's participation in development of education sans just profiteering, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said today.
Delivering the valedictory address at the third convocation of St Xavier's, Kolkata, Chidambaram said, ''We welcome private sector's participation in education provided it does not consider profiteering alone.'' Chidambaram also cautioned the self-financing educational institutions against ''vitiating'' the ''educational atmosphere'' by prioritising monetary interest.
He regretted that enrolment in higher education in the country was 11 to 12 per cent while it was 45 per cent in a number of other countries.
Recognising higher education as the ''most desired stage'' for the overall development of education, Chidambaram said ''universalisation of school education would not be achieved if higher education got affected.''
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Suranjan Das, Vice-Chancellor, University of Calcutta, urged St Xavier's and the university to work jointly for the betterment of education in West Bengal.
State Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhuri was among other distinguished personalities who graced the function.
Addressing the concluding ceremony of the sesquicentennial celebrations of St Xavier's here yesterday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said India must aim for 100 per cent literacy across the country and every child should be literate over the next decade.
The Prime Minister said these targets could be achieved as the rate of literacy had been going up significantly in the past few years and enrolment ratios were rising and drop-out rates falling.
Dr Singh also urged those associated with school education to pay special attention to the modernisation of the syllabi and to the overall development of children.