Indian president concerned about standard of education

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday raised concern on the quality of education, saying that none of the Indian universities figure in the top 200 institutions of the world. While addressing the students and faculty of central universities, IITs, NITs and other institutions through video-conferencing, Mukherjee said that institutions should take the university ranking process seriously to boost the morale of the academics and the students. “My first and foremost concern is the quality of education in our country. The standard of higher education has a direct relationship with the development of a nation and the quality of life of its citizens. Two recent surveys conducted by reputed international organizations have brought out the difference in the standards of education between institutions in India and abroad. None of the Indian universities find any place in the top 200 institutions,” said Mukherjee. He added, “This was not the case in the past. Between sixth century BC and 12th century AD, our seats of higher learning – Nalanda, Takshashila, Vikramashila, Valabhi, Somapura and Odantapuri – dominated the world. They were visited by knowledge seekers from round the world. But now, many bright Indian students go abroad for higher studies. Nobel laureates Har Gobind Khorana, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Amartya Sen and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan did their graduate or post-graduate studies in Indian universities before they went abroad to pursue higher learning.” To improve the standards of higher education, Mukherjee said, the quality of teachers, the learning capacity of students, and the physical infrastructure should be improved. Mukherjee also thanked National Knowledge Network for helping him reach out to the large number of institutions. Source: Education News