ndia is now 64 per cent literate. My aim is to make it 75 per cent ... Secondly, we must find innovative methods and low-cost systems of imparting education.

Thirdly, ... the country must be ready to fund education expenditure even by having an education cess. So there should be a three-pronged approach My second priority is higher education. We want to improve the quality and make it accessible to the meritorious among the poor. Curricula and syllabi should be constantly updated ... (We must) inform our students about India's contribution to world civilisation ...

... I call my critics academic fascists, those who do not want to listen to anyone else. Should students not know that there is a chapter on fundamental duties in the Constitution? ... Why shouldn't the contribution of Netaji be taught to students? Or the role of Jayaprakash Narayan in the freedom movement?

The role of Birsa Munda? All I'm saying is: please update the whole thing and give the total picture. Why should revolutionaries not find a place?

People acquire a Hindu nationalist background because I have appointed them ... Culture is a vast area and deserves greater attention than it was getting as a part of the HRD ministry. There are others who feel that education and culture should go together. I am comfortable with both views.  (Source: The Week, 14 November, 1999)