Teachers to march for quality education on Friday

New Delhi, September 16: Over 10,000 teachers from 24 states in the country will march in the national capital on Friday, to raise awareness and seek support to pursue "quality education" for all, it was announced Monday.

The assembly of educators is being organised to ensure that the United Nations (UN) keeps a sharp focus on education as it will set its post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on September 24. The march is to bring to the notice of the governments, non-governmental and international organisations, financial institutions, community leaders and the general public of the role of "quality education" in development of individual and society.

"In 2001, India launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which advocates education for all and in 2009 came the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Much still remains and so the focus this time is on quality education," told Kumar Ratan, national advocacy coordinator at National Coalition for Education (NCE).

Organised by the Education International, an advocacy group, the march will begin from Mata Sundari College in central Delhi and go up to Jantar Mantar - the protest venue in the heart of Delhi. "We want our voices to reach the UN so that quality education becomes the bedrock of any post-2015 development agenda," added Ratan.

IANS