Provide free quality education to all children: VIT Chancellor
VIT Chancellor Dr G Viswanathan on April 6 urged Government to provide free quality education to all children in the country.
Delivering the presidential address at the University Day and Annual Sports Day function held at VIT, Vellore on April 6, Viswanathan said that 40 countries in the world offer free higher education to students, of which countries like Norway, Sweden, Germany, France,etc, provide free education to foreign students too.
"It may not be possible to provide free education to foreign students, but we must be able to give free education to our own children. We have suggested that if it is not possible immediately let us begin with free education to girls now, later on we can expand with others also," he said.
The Chancellor also said that Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI), in which he is the President, has made a request to the Government that the age limit of 14 years for free and compulsory education should be increased to 18 years so that it would cover upto class 12 and also those who send their children to private school should be given financial help.
Pointing out that any welfare state should spend enough money on social infrastructure, mainly on education and health as education improves not only family but also society and the country, the Chancellor said that Central Government should spend atleast 6 percent of the GDP on education, but only four percent of GDP is now spent for education.
Comparing India and the United States of America on the expenditure spent per student in the education sector, he said that per student expenditure on schools in US was $ 12,000 whereas it was $1,100 in India.
Speaking about VIT, Dr Viswanathan also said that VIT has provided scholarships of Rs 16.07 crore to students through various scholarships this year. "We are the first university to contribute Rs one crore to Kerala cyclone relief fund with the contribution of one day salary of teaching and non-teaching staff. With the help of contribution from teaching and non-teaching staff and the management we have contributed Rs 1.25 crore to the Tamilnadu government cyclone relief fund," he said.
Noting that Six IITs in the country had been the model for the government sector in higher education, he said that he wants VIT to be a model to private sector of this country, in which more than 75 percent of children study higher education.
Chief Guest of the function, Justice T Raja, Judge, Madras High Court, Chennai, in his address appreciated VIT management for providing conducive atmosphere with excellent infrastructure for students to get good quality education.
"After visiting this university and looking at its infrastructure it gives immense pleasure that I visited one of the top leading University in the world."
He urged students to come up with new technology and newer steps to help society and younger generation.
Guest of Honour, Dr E Natarajan, Professor and Director, Institute of Energy Studies, Anna University, Chennai, also an alumnus of VIT, said that education empowers an human being and VIT had been empowering lot of students through its high quality education.
Dr Sekar Viswanathan, Vice- President, VIT in his felicitation said that students learn a lot outside the classroom at VIT and it has been an active campus for students in the country.
As many as 2,142 students received scholarships worth Rs 90 lakhs during the function.
Dr Sandhya Pentareddy, Executive Director, Dr Anand A Samuel, Vice Chancellor, Dr S Narayanan, Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr K Sathiyanarayanan, Registrar, VIT also took part in the function.
Sanjay V received the Chancellor's gold medal and best outgoing student award, Amala Kaviya V S bagged the Chancellor's special award during the function.
