New Delhi, April 1 (Inditop.com) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday gave his own example of how education has shaped his life from an ordinary boy to the prime minister of India and urged all Indians to join the ‘national effort’ to make right to education a success.
‘I was born to a family of modest means. In my child hood, I had to walk a long distance to go to school . I read under the dim light of a kerosene lamp,’the prime minister said in his address to the nation, both in Hindi and English.
‘I am what I am today because of education.’ The prime minister was born in the village of Wah in Punjab, in what is now Pakistan, and has said he had to travel long distances and suffer considerable hardships to attain elementary education because of lack of access. His dream is to give minimum educational access to India’s deprived chidren.
Like him, Manmohan Singh urged all children to dream big for a better tomorrow. ‘I want every Indian child, girl and boy, to be so touched by the light of education. I want every Indian to dream of a better future and live that dream.’
Right to Education as a fundamental right formally came into effect Thursday with the prime minister urging all stakeholders to make it a success by empowering people through education.
‘Let us together pledge this Act (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act) to the children of India. To our young men and women. To the future of our Nation,’ he added.
The act promises free and compulsory education to millions of Indian children up to class eight.
