Rueing that the teaching community is not as educated as it should be, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday highlighted the need to get the best minds in the teaching profession to educate children.

Sibal said it was "ironic that we are talking about teacher education instead of discussing the education of children".

Addressing the 59th meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), he said, "It is ironic that you always talk about education of children. Here we are talking about teacher education. In other words, we have accepted the fact that our teaching communities are not as educated as they should be".

He also accepted the fact that both the central and state governments have failed to get access to high quality people in teaching profession to build the future of India.

"We have let that profession down by giving that profession a sectarian interest that is unfortunate. I think that as a nation we need to change our mindsets. We need to rethink our strategy.

"If we want to educate our children, we must get the best minds in teaching profession," Sibal said, emphsasing on the need to improve the quality of teaching to "improve the quality of learning".

He asked CABE members to throughly discuss the issues and invited their suggestions to improve the quality of teachers.