Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Monday indirectly questioned the need for the government to spend huge amounts on fee reimbursement when quality education could be provided at much lesser cost.
Speaking extempore at the first convocation ceremony of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies here on Monday, he quoted the university authorities as telling him that the cost for each student was around Rs. 1. 5 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh. “This is the real cost of education. This is an eye-opener,” Mr. Narasimhan added. “We are talking of financial incentives. Why should there be financial incentives?” he asked.
Referring to the threat of closure by private engineering colleges, he recalled that he sought to know from them whether they survive on State government fees or opened the institutions to provide education.
The Governor said the students of RGUKT showed that intelligence was not confined merely to urban areas. He urged the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was present, and his counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao to adopt the three centres of RGUKT located at Basara, Nuzvid and RK Valley, Idupulapaya.
He would also request Mr. Rao to visit the university, he added.
Lauding the university for working on society-based technologies, he expressed joy at the “brilliant performance” of the students from the three campuses of the university and said it was the proudest moment for him in the last four-and-a-half years. He urged the two States to treat the three campuses as role models and open more such institutions.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu termed RGUKT method as one of the best models. He said India has the advantage of demographic dividend and called for harnessing human and natural resources so the country could become leading knowledge-based nation. He said that education in the USA was student-based while it was classroom-based or teacher-based in India, which was not correct. Information Technology could be used to fill the gaps, he added.
Vice-Chancellor of RGUKT R.V. Raja Kumar said the education system at the university was ICT-based and it perhaps was the first university in the country to adopt ICT for educating rural students.
As many as 4,619 B.Tech and M.Tech students were awarded degrees.
