Chennai, Mar 16: Governor Banwarilal Purohit said that the various policies and schemes provided by both the Central and State Governments have accelerated the pace of establishment of new institutions, which have ensured that higher education is accessible to large sections of the society.
Speaking at the 19th graduation day of Rajalakshmi Engineering College on 14 March, Purohit said India has always been a land of scholars.
”Ancient India had global universities at Nalanda and Takshashila which attracted many scholars from all over the world. However, we lost our position of eminence. But today we are going through a period of awakening, an awakening to bring back the lost glory to the Indian higher education system,” he said.
He further said,”I am aware that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 26.3 per cent in our country. The Gross Enrolment Ratio of Tamilnadu is 49.3 per cent. Another positive news is that the GER which was highly skewed towards male students is neutralising, as the number of girl students who are enrolling for higher education is on the rise with an increase of 30 per cent over the last 5 years.”
”Recently, we had Vice-Chancellors’ conference in Ooty on ‘Chancellor’s Vision 2030: Innovating Education in the Era of Industry 4.0’. During the Conference, we discussed methods of improving higher education scenario in Tamilnadu and
methodologies for bridging the gap between the curriculum that is being offered by the universities at present and the expectations of the industry from students,” he added.
He also said,”A society properly educated is always progressive, peaceful and prosperous. Students should be the torch-bearers who lead other peoples of the world from darkness to light. The greatness of a civilisation lies not in what people enjoy but in what people can provide for the betterment of mankind and continued civilisation in a sustained manner.”
Rajalakshmi institutions chairperson Thangam Meganathan, principal S N Murugesan, advisor C R Muthukrishnan, dean (academics) Murali Baskar, professor M Subbiah, TAFE ltd., group president S Chandramohan participated.