Education has a great role to play in reducing disparities between social groups and in promoting social mobility, Mother Teresa Women's University Vice-Chancellor Aruna Sivakami Ananthakrishnan has said.
Delivering the graduation day address at the Vellalar College for Women here on Friday, she said that higher education was the gateway to social mobility. Education should help individuals to contribute significantly for the development of the society, country and the world. Access to education should be widened and made available to people from all sections of the society. The higher level of access would enable more people to participate in the development process and also help them enhance their socio-economic conditions, she said.
Stating that the number of higher educational institutions in the country was inadequate, the Vice-Chancellor stressed the need for more institutions to provide education to all the people. The country was also facing a shortage of about 1.2 million teachers. Ms. Ananthakrishnan also stressed that there should be relevance in university education to both society and the industry. The primary objective of higher education was to promote learning and encourage the student community to develop an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. There should be a constant dialogue between the industry, society and universities which would help create a knowledge society, she said.
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She also insisted that the deserving students should be given adequate support to pursue subjects of their interest. Scholarships, provision of boarding and lodging facilities, library and laboratory facilities should be provided to the eligible students, she added. Later, she presented degree certificates and medals to the students.
Principal C. Suseela also spoke.