NITI Aayog for extending schooling to 18 years

Tribune News Service

Anshita Mehra

New Delhi, December 1

NITI Aayog member VK Paul today emphasised the need to extend the years of schooling in India from the current 13 years to 18 years.

Addressing the seventh edition of the National School Education Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Paul, who is the former head of paediatrics department at AIIMS, highlighted the potential impact of adding even one more year to schooling.

He pointed out that increasing the duration of schooling by one year could contribute 10 per cent to country’s productivity. He gave a reference of UNICEF data to indicate that an additional year of schooling could result in about half a per cent increase in the GDP. The summit focused on integrating vocational skills and digital technology into school education to create a future-ready generation. Paul stressed the crucial aspect of improving the health of schoolchildren. While acknowledging the attention given to children under the age of five, he said the health of older children was often overlooked. He highlighted alarming statistics, such as 60 per cent of adolescent girls being anaemic, around 10 per cent of children needing glasses and over 20 per cent grappling with anxiety. He emphasised the need for proactively addressing these health issues and screen children for timely intervention.

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