New Delhi, July 30 - State governments must give up their 'chalta hai' (laid-back) attitude to improve the quality of education to take India to new heights, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said here Thursday.

The minister said there is up to 50 percent shortage of teachers in schools in various states.

Both vacancy and quality of teachers are concern areas, he said.

The Right to Education bill has underlined that teachers have to receive a certain degree of excellence in five years. The bill, which is already passed by the Rajya Sabha, will make education compulsory for students of the age group of six to 14 once it becomes a law. It has various provisions to boost elementary education too.

But the 'states should not take five years for this. Chalta hai (laid-back) attitude should go. You must target to do it in one or two years,' he said addressing a meeting of elementary education secretaries from the various states.

'We need an element of uniformity of excellence and quality in school education system,' he said.