New Delhi, Sept 23 (ZEENEWS.COM) In the backdrop of critical remarks by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meals Scheme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday reviewed the two ambitious flagship programmes of the UPA government.

The meeting, which was attended by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, saw the Prime Minister expressing concern at pockets across the country where the number of children out of school continued to be high even though the number of such children has been reduced from 2.5 crore to 96 lakhs over the past two years.

The Prime Minister emphasised the need for providing joyful and quality learning, especially to first generation school-goers, PM'S Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said in a statement.

The CAG, in its report on SSA presented to Parliament recently, pointed out that of the 3.40 crore children in the country, 1.36 crore aged between six and 14 years remained out of school as on march 2005. This, it said, was "four years after the implementation of the scheme and after having incurred an expenditure of Rs 11,133.57 crore".

Supervision and monitoring of the SSA was ineffective both at the national and state levels, the CAG said.

In the context of the national curriculum framework of 2005, the Prime Minister laid emphasis on the need to improve the quality of science and mathematics teaching. He also expressed concern over absenteeism, delays in recruitment of teachers, and their deployment.

He said the best practices of the SSA and mid-day meals programmes should be shared across the states and the schemes reviewed in the forthcoming meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) to bring about synergy and national consensus on priorities.

The meeting was also attended by minister of state in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan and senior officials from the PMO, Human Resource Development Ministry and Planning Commission.