Big deficiency in education quality despite IITs, NITs: Prez

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) Noting that there is a "bigdeficiency" in the quality of education in the country despitethe presence of institutions like IITs and NITs, PresidentPranab Mukherjee today said the flow of Indian students toinstitutions abroad needs to be reversed. "Our IITs, our NITs are excellent so far as campusrecruitment is concerned," he said, adding, there are 732universities and 36,000 degree colleges in the country. Despite this infrastructure, there is a "big deficiency"in terms of quality of education, he said at an event herewhere National Teachers Awards were conferred upon 364 schoolteachers from across the country. "Unless we have the quality of education, you cannotbuild a knowledge society. Unless you build the knowledgesociety, you cannot occupy your rightful place in the comityof nations," Mukherjee said. He said from 6th century BC to 12 century AD–the heydaysof Taxila to the collapse of Nalanda–India was the leadingcentre of higher education and Indian universities attractedmighty minds from all across the globe in form of teachers andstudents. "Today, every year more than 60,000 students leave ourcountry for higher education to Oxford, Cambridge, MIT etc. Weshall have to make this flow reverse." This reversal of flow cannot be made only in theuniversities but a beginning has to be made at the primarylevel, Mukherjee said. He congratulated the teachers who were conferred theaward and said primary and secondary education lays thefoundation of higher education. He said teachers made a bigcontribution in terms of social responsibility for thecountry. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and his deputies UpendraKushwaha and Mahendra Nath Pandey were also present at theevent. In his speech, Mukherjee said he was the Visitor of 114central institutions, including 30 NITs, 16 IITs, 45universities, management institutions etc. Javadekar also echoed Mukherjee’s thoughts, saying while27 crore students were enrolled and access of education hadspread, it was quality which was the biggest challenge. PTIADS AAR ZMNAAR