Cisco, IBM, Microsoft sign MoU with Rajasthan Govt.
By Sources   |   Thursday, 01 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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JAIPUR: Rajasthan government has signed an MoU with IT majors to create an education initiative on the lines of a programme in Jordan to spruce up school education in the state. The agreement has been signed with prominent IT companies like CISCO, IBM, Microsoft and Wipro, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje informed on Wednesday. Taking part in a panel discussion at the India Economic Summit 2005 in New Delhi, the Chief Minister said the 'Rajasthan Education Initiative' has been formed with the aim of removing illiteracy from the state. "It is about business integrating with the government and the community in a big state like ours to strengthen the education system," she said. Drawing a comparison with the project in Jordan, she said the scale of the programme, a public-private partnership, would be much bigger in Rajasthan. "While in Jordan, there were 52,000 children in 90 to 100 schools, in Rajasthan, there are 10 million children in 75,000 schools," Raje said. She said her government was keen to have quality tourism-related education, given the state's great importance in the tourism map of the country. Also, referring to her government's decision to make English language compulsory in school education, Raje said, "If we want to build a knowledge industry in the state, then it is essential that the children are taught English, as it is a language known across the world."

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