The Central and State governments should allocate adequate funds to ensure that every underprivileged student has access to quality education in the country, said G. Viswanathan, founder and Chancellor, VIT, on Friday.
In his presidential address at the scholarship distribution event to government students in the region, which was organised by Universal Higher Education Trust (UHET) of VIT here, Mr. Viswanathan emphasised the importance of education as a permanent asset. “Education is the only lasting wealth that our people and the government should help in affordable access of higher education to poor students and those from tribal areas,” he said.
The Chancellor stressed the need for India to compete with developed nations like the U.S. and China. At present, India ranks fourth globally in terms of total economic output, behind the U.S., China, and Germany. However, India stands at 140th position in terms of per capita income. For example, Japan’s per capita income is around 30,000 dollars as against India’s 3,000 dollars.
The Chancellor said that the existing six hours of class hours in schools in the country should be better utilized to improve quality education. In countries like Bangladesh, total class hours fall between 8.5 hours and 9.5 hours every day. China and South Korea have gone a step ahead as total class hours in these countries range between 12 hours and 14 hours per day.
