The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : As urban-rural gap stands out, school education can’t be neglected: Ram

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Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
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As urban-rural gap stands out, school education can’t be neglected: Ram

Staff Reporter

“High dropout due to lack of quality and absence of amenities in rural schools”

— Photo: K. Ganesan

PROUD MOMENT: N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, handing over the degree to a student at the Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering at Krishnankoil near Srivilliputhur on Saturday.

SRIVILLIPUTTUR: The major challenge in school education is to strike a balance between quality and accessibility and to remove the urban-rural divide, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said on Saturday.

Policy planners could no longer neglect education, especially school education, as the base of the pyramid was not strong enough and “the urban-rural gap stands out,” he said, delivering the convocation address at the 21st convocation of the Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering (Kalasalingam University) at Krishnankoil in Virudhunagar district.

“It is no wonder that the school dropout rate continues to be high when there is lack of quality and absence of minimum conditions like classrooms in schools on the rural side,” he said.

Calling for more investment in education, Mr. Ram said the heart of the challenge was to balance the pursuit of quality and excellence on the one hand and the imperative need to make education accessible on the other. “Quality and accessibility must not be seen as conflicting goals. It is imperative to make education accessible.”

He referred to the report of the Planning Commission’s taskforce that said knowledge through all institutions must empower and enrich the people to achieve social transformation.

Appreciating college founder T. Kalasalingam for choosing a rural area to start an engineering institution more than two decades ago, he described it as a “magnificent experiment.”

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