At least 15 cr children, youths out of formal education system

New Delhi: At least 15 crore children and youths are out of the country's formal education system, and roughly about 25 crore population is below the primary definition of literacy, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Thursday. He was addressing a session on "Job creation and entrepreneurship" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) during its annual meeting.

"If we take into account the numbers of children and youths between the age of 3-22 years who are enrolled in government, private and charitable schools, anganwadis, Higher Education Institutions and in the entire skilling ecosystem, the cumulative figure from all the verticals is around 35 crore while (the country's) population in the particular age group is around 50 crore," Pradhan said. "This means that at least 15 crore children and youth are out of the formal education system. We want to bring them into the education system as it is necessary to ensure a productive workforce in the economy" he added.

The Education Minister said that a census following the independence of the country had found that 19% of the population was literate then.