HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju for 'Inclusive' Higher Education

PTI: Union Human Resources Development Minister M Pallam Raju today said education without a meaningful purpose will always be meaningless for the society.

Calling for "inclusive" higher education, Raju said higher education should establish a strong bond with business and industry so that it could establish a link with the society.

Dr Raju was delivering the Commencement Speech as the chief guest on the occasion of the sixth Convocation of the Ravenshaw University where he informed that the UPA Government at the Centre is making a sincere effort to universalise secondary education and incentivise States' higher education institutions

He informed that during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017), it has been proposed to create an additional enrolment capacity of 10 million students of which a majority would be in higher education. While there are only 18 per cent of students from the present enrolment in higher education, this capacity would be enhanced to 30 per cent in 2030.

In order to achieve this, he informed, at least 200 community colleges are proposed to be established in the country where the curricula would include a mix of academic and vocational skills. The local community would be given priority in the academic and administrative boards of these colleges which would work in close coordination with industry and business houses.

Educationist Dr Debendra Chandra Misra, linguist Dr Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, litterateur Sitakant Mahapatra and dancer and academician Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi were conferred with Honoris Causa. While classical music exponent Raghunath Panigrahi did not turn up to receive his honour, Justice Deepak Mishra of Supreme Court and HRD Minister Dr Raju himself had earlier expressed their inabilities to receive the honour.