Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Revamp higher education to meet global challenges

Staff Reporter

ERODE: There is an urgent need to revamp education at the collegiate level, so that students, teachers, education institutions, State and Centre can stand up to challenges in a globalised world, Dr. P. Tirumalvalavan, Registrar, Bharathiar University, has said.

Inaugurating `Issues and Challenges and in Higher Education', a seminar organised by the Vellalar College for Women on Wednesday, he said the urgency was more than ever before because under the global order, education, considered a part of service, was tradable.

"When best of foreign institutions set shop here, they will attract the best and the affordable students along with the brightest of the faculty, leaving us with nothing but the infrastructure, with which nothing much can happen." Pointing out that last year around 80,000 Indian students had gone abroad for education, and 40 per cent of faculty in the U.S. were persons of Indian origin, he wondered, "How come Indians are able to do well but not India?" "Whatever is ailing the system needs to be remedied, " he added.

Referring to the spending on education, Mr. Tirumalvalavan said at present the Government spent only 3.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as against the desired seven per cent. The seven per cent worked out to $ 50bn and the country would do well to increase it.

Placements, he said, was a cause for concern not only from the employability point of view but also from the education point of view. He asked what was the worth of a degree if a graduate was not able to get into a company, whose requirement was only communication skills combined with common sense.

"What is the skill set that the education has given him, if any?" Slamming the education system for its colonial hangover, the Registrar felt the Country needed an education system where learning by rote would stop and students would be made to exercise their intelligence and employ skills.

Earlier, the College Principal, Dr. Chandra Thangavel, welcomed the gathering. College Correspondent S. D. Chandrasekar and Head of the Department, History, R. Ganga participated.

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