Ahmedabad: 'We should move on,' National Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda says in response to the Supreme Court ruling reserving 27 percent of seats in institutes of higher learning to the less privileged.

'India with her huge population of young people can become the workforce of the world if only our children get college education,' Pitroda said here on Saturday.

Pitroda was in the city for deliberations on reforms in the education sector and met Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

On the Supreme Court verdict upholding the 27 percent quota for Other Backward Classes, Pitroda said the judgment had to be respected.

'We should move on. There are so many things to do that nothing should tie us down,' an official statement quoted Pitroda as saying.

He pointed out the need for rapid expansion and reforms in education. 'We have 370 universities when we need 1,500. Right now only 10 percent of our children get college education,' he said.

'More than 550 million young people are in need of education and the progress of the education sector - in terms of opening more colleges and universities is not fast enough,' he said.

A lot more needs to be done, especially in the field of technical education where Gujarat does not have too many colleges, he added.

One of the recommendations made by the commission is divesting colleges from universities so that both are able to function as separate units.

'Our experience has shown that having affiliated colleges is a drain on the university resources. The colleges should be allowed to function independently and so should the universities. Universities should be a centre for research and they should be given conditions to do that,' said Pitroda.

Another important recommendation made by the commission is having a different web-based school education system where the formal trappings of a classroom are not necessary.

The National Knowledge Commission was set up in July 2005 by the government to build excellence in educational institutions and to help in promoting creation of knowledge in science and technology laboratories. IANS