“I believe that private participation in higher education is important for the spread of education but I am strictly against private business with education,” Chidambaram said at the closing ceremony marking 150 years of St Xavier’s College here.
“In fact, today’s education has either become a money- spinning machine or a moth-eaten system. We need to change that and make higher education available to all,” the home minister said in the Convocation and Valedictory Programme, 2010.
The Centre has laid down the higher education policy. And higher education is a domain that has no place for profiteers, the home minister said.
In fact, according to the home minister, it is not only school education but higher education which is essential for the development of the nation. And in this sphere the country is lagging far behind the international standards.
When all over the globe 40 per cent of the school-going students make it to colleges or universities, in India only 11 to 12 pursue higher education section. This should be changed,” Chidambaram said.
The home minister conferred Nihil Ultra Award of Honour on Rev Father P C Mathew S J, principal of St Xavier’s College.
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