Stressing the need to focus on syllabus modernisation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that school education should focus on the overall development of a child.

Speaking at the 150th anniversary celebrations at St Xavier’s College, the Prime Minister said: “I urge everyone associated with school education to pay special attention to the syllabus modernisation and the overall development of our children —- intellectual, physical, moral and social.”

According to him, the UPA government has made universal access to education a cornerstone in its strategy for inclusive growth and has steeply increased public investment in education. He said the state governments should ensure that the money allocated to them is spent properly.

Expressing satisfaction over the growing literacy and low dropout rates, Singh said he would like to see a sharp increase in the enrollment of girl child so that they have adequate opportunity to fulfill their aspirations. “Every child should have access to school education within a reasonable distance from their house. When I was a young boy I had to walk miles to go to school. This should not be the case for our children,” he said.

The PM lauded the efforts of the Jesuit priests who started the institution 150 years ago in Park Street, upholding secularism and religious tolerance in the country. “The Jesuit fathers of St Xavier’s, self-consciously or otherwise, became a part of this confluence of cultures and learning. They made themselves an integral part of and reinforced India’s culture of religious tolerance and secularism,” Singh said. He also praised the Jesuit priests for evoking scientific temper and rational thinking among students. “A remarkable Jesuit priest, Fr. Lafont, was responsible for the establishment of the first Meteorological and Spectroscopic Observatory in Kolkata at St Xavier’s. He was the inspiration behind scientist Dr Jagadish Chandra Bose, another towering Xaverian,” he added.