Seminar on ‘challenges, strategies for success of govt school students’ held

The school education department in association with Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) organized a seminar on the challenges and strategies for the success of government school students in the district, at Anna hall in the district.
The seminar was attended by government school principals and teachers from eight blocks of the district. The event was presided over by VIT Chancellor G Viswanathan.
Addressing the gathering, he said, “Educational development is the basis of economic progress. Since most of the underprivileged students study in government schools, the government and the private sector should work together to ensure quality education for them.”
He recalled how he used to walk to his school, and praised teachers as social workers. He was a student of a government elementary school.
Noting that India is ranked 101st in the global education rankings, he said that India spends less than 3% of its GDP on education, while countries like Cuba spend up to 11.5%.
“Out of 44,000 students studying at VIT University, 4,000 of them are engaged in research studies. They are given a research grant of Rs 35,000 per month. However, the number of those receiving government grants is very low. In countries like South Korea and Finland, which are at the top in education, ten hours of school education is taught,” he added.
He said that under the "Higher Education for All" scheme, 10,000 students have been provided with educational grants in the last 10 years, and most of the students have benefited from the scheme.
District collector Subbulakshmi assured that the government would provide full cooperation to increase the pass rate of students. She said that government school teachers should give their full contribution and provide quality education to the students.
School education director Kannappan, VIT vice chancellor Shekhar Viswananthan, professors Meenakshi and Govardhan, education department staff Dayalan and Sathya Prabha, and others attended the event.