Naidu hails TN for being on top in higher education

Inaugurating the Centenary Celebrations of the National College, Venkaiah Naidu said, literacy in India has been one of the key deterrents to the socio-economic progress of the country. Despite the literacy rate rising significantly, from 17 per cent at the end of 1950 to 76 per cent currently, India still has the largest illiterate population in the world, with its literacy rate remaining below the world average of 86 per cent.

Though India is home to premier institutions like IISc., IIT, IIM, only 56 institutions were featured in the 500 universities that made it to the ‘Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020’.

However, not a single Indian university features in the top 300 list. But, the ancient India was the education capital of the world. With legendary universities like Nalanda, Takshashila and Vikramshila, India was the seat of wisdom, the cradle of civilisation, the ‘Viswaguru’ or the teacher to the world, he said.

Stating that India has the world’s largest population in the age bracket of 5-24 years (about 500 million), the Vice-President said this presents a great opportunity for our education sector to grow.

When the national average of GER in higher education stood at 26.3 per cent in 2018-19, Tamil Nadu topped the nation with 46.9 per cent GER, he said.

Meanwhile, Venkaiah Naidu said that India has done very well in certain areas of Science and Technology, especially in Space Technology and Information and Communication Technology.

“In fact, Indian Computer Science experts work in the key positions of leadership in several  IT global majors and thus our nation has the potential to be the manufacturing hub and the human resources capital of the world, he stressed.

He also said that regardless of what stream of education they are pursuing, the teachers must endeavour to teach the students the rich history of our country and the life stories of the great men and women who gave shape and form to this great nation. “Our students must draw inspiration from our glorious history to create a magnificent future,” he said. Earlier, he unveiled the inscription stone commemorating the centenary celebrations.