The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Apply knowledge, skills, technology to check illiteracy, says UGC Vice-Chairman

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 11, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Apply knowledge, skills, technology to check illiteracy, says UGC Vice-Chairman

Staff Reporter

`Use of technology is imperative to realise goal of education for all'

TAMBARAM: Educated youth should apply their knowledge, skills and technology to bring down illiteracy in order to take the country to goal of development, V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chairman, University Grants Commission, said on Friday.

Speaking at the Eighteenth Graduates Day at the B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College, Vandalur, he said large-scale use of technology was imperative to realising the goal of education for all. Universal literacy, near universal school education and a high percentage of access to higher education were an integral part of any developed nation. In India, there was a lot be done in this regard.

Apart from 35 per cent of the population continuing to remain illiterates, only a small percentage of children between 6 and 14 years of age attended school, Mr. Pillai said.

Under such circumstances, graduates should use their skills, knowledge and technology to bridge the digital and educational divide.

Such divides arose as the society "over valued material resources and under valued human resources."

Integration

He called for greater integration of technology and conventional techniques.

Both open and distance learning methods of teaching had to be adopted to move towards universal school education.

He reminded teachers that they too should accept and make use of technology.

"Only then will you be sustained or else you will be replaced."

S. Peer Mohammed, correspondent, read out the notable achievements of students in national and international events in the last year. V.M. Periasamy, principal, spoke.

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