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Colleges told to increase number of students

Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY: Former Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University A. Gnanam today called for increasing the number of students in schools and colleges to make India one among the middle income group of countries.

Addressing a large gathering of students at the 38th annual day celebrations of the Bharathidasan Government College for Women here, Dr. Gnanam said of India's 1.7 billion population, only 7 per cent of students belonging to the age group of 17 and above were attending college.

"For India to join the league of middle income nations, we need to increase it to 25 to 30 per cent because schools do not attract enough students. Only 56 per cent of children attend primary school and only half of that come to middle school level and an even lesser percentage attend higher secondary level," he noted. Educationist Kittu Reddy, in his address, said that women could not be empowered unless there were enough employment opportunities and there was enough money in it.

College principal S. Kumuda in her annual report said that the college was the first to have a fully automated library. She also said that the college was offering 16 undergraduate, 2 postgraduate and one M Phil courses.

Tamil Scholar Lenin Thangappa gave away proficiency prizes to students.

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