Agriculture students must spend time with farmers : VP Naidu

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Vice President (VP) of India M Venkaiah Naidu on October 22, 2018, exhorted universities and higher educational institutions in the private sector to earmark certain percentage of seats for the poorer sections and subsidise their education.

Delivering the 9th Convocational Address of the Lovely Professional University at Phagwara, Punjab, Naidu said unfortunately quality private sector education has become out of bounds for the poor and marginalized sections. “Why should not private universities earmark certain percentage of seats for students belonging to poorer sections and subsidise their education,” VP Naidu asked.

The Vice President pointed out that public sector alone cannot provide quality higher education for all and the private sector must pitch in. He said that industries and the private sector in general should supplement the efforts of the government in making quality education available to all. “Our challenge is to ensure the spread of knowledge to every section and every corner of our country,”Naidu added.

Calling for a complete overhaul of the education system, the Vice President said that majority of our colleges have become mere breading centres for producing students with degree certificates rather than individuals with critical analytical skills. He expressed concern over students passing out of colleges lacking employable skills.

Referring to poor performance of Indian higher educational institutions, Naidu stressed the need to improve the standards by leaps and bounds to make them globally competitive. He called for increasing the number of institutions and universities to meet the growing demand of students seeking higher education and to realise India’s target of a gross enrolment ratio of 30% by 2020.

Naidu said that educational institutions must kindle the entrepreneurial spirit among the students. Our educational institutions must not only prepare students for life long careers but also as good and responsible citizens of the society, he said adding that students must become job creators rather than job seekers, according to a PIB release.

Lauding the farmers of Punjab for turning the state into rice bowl of India, the Vice President called for making agriculture sustainable through innovative methods. He suggested students studying agriculture must spend time with farmers to have a first hand understanding of the problems facing the farmers.