While expressing concern over the growing atrocities against women and children, the President Pranab Mukherjee also called upon to improve the higher education in such a way that it not only improves the moral values but also enables the students mainly of the weaker sections to get the education in our land instead of going abroad for obtaining excellence.
The President chose to express his views on the fourth convocation of the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in the state capital on Friday. He was all priasedfor Dr Ambedkar and said that he was great son of India who contributed to the transformation of the country socially and politically. "Education is the crucial element for the betterment of the nation" he said explaining the contribution of Dr Ambedkar in the field of the education and social and political empowerment of the downtrodden people.
The President emphasised that solutions have to be found out to check degradation of values. "love for mother land and respect for women is something inherited in our culture and ethics" he said. He said that rising crime against women and children was like contemporary moral challenge which can be addressed through an effective education system. He also said that existing education system was not being able to meet the challenge of shaping young minds.
He urged the universities to set the process of redefining our moral values in motion even as he advocated e-learning to impart education in remote areas by tapping the power of information technology. "We continue to be challenged by problems of the quantity and the quality in the education. The number of quality academic institutions in India is inadequate, due to which many meritorious students go abroad for higher studies. It would be our undoing if we cannot draw our students to seek higher education in their own country mainly those belong to economically weaker section" Mukherjee said.
The President lamented over the fact that nearly 2 lakh plus students were pursuing higher education in foreign lands.
He appeared more worried about the fact that nearly thirty six percent posts of the teachers were lying vacant in the central universities. "This is worrying. The existing shortage of teachers could negate our efforts at quality enhancement. Immediate steps should be taken to fill up the vacancies" he said while asking the central universities to develop at least one department as the centre of excellence.
He complimented the lucknow’s Amebdkar University for working on his suggestion to set up an innovators’ club, which he formally inaugurated on after the clsore of convocation on Friday. "Through these clubs interaction can be facilitated between teachers and students and grassroots innovators" he said. Mukherjee proved through facts that the after effects of neglect of higher education had started manifesting themselves in various ways. "With just 42000 patent applications we are far behind to the US and China who had filed 5 lakh patent applications" he said.
The President said that the working age population of the country is expected to be more than 64 per cent by 2021, and our education system should play an enabling role to transform this demographic expansion into a national asset.
The Governor B.l.Joshi , the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav Union Minister of state for Human Resource Development Jitin Prasad, ChancelloN.l.lakhanpal and vice chancellor S.C.Sobti also addressed the convocation. The former chief minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari and former Governor Mata Prasad were also present on the occasion.