Educational institutes must lay the base for inclusive society: N. Ram

Updated on: Monday, February 14, 2011

The foundations for an inclusive society, which presupposes a secular, democratic and progressive outlook, must be laid in schools, colleges and universities, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram said here on Sunday.

Delivering the chief guest's address at the Eleventh Graduation Day of Bannariamman Institute of Technology (BIT) here, he reminded the youth that India was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-political and multi-cultural society that required an inclusive approach for development.

Pointing out the danger to secularism and democracy from communalism and caste divisions, Mr. Ram said: “I have touched on the theme of social inclusiveness to remind you that young people who have stepped out of academic institutions to pursue a variety of careers cannot escape engagement with these social issues.”

Stressing the need for more progress on the social justice front, he also cautioned that campaigns for this should not allow vested interests and backward-looking social forces to confuse the people.

Society too must invest wisely, cost-effectively and on enough scale in education. Otherwise, the comparative advantage the nation had now would erode quickly.

“This brings us to the heart of the educational challenge in India. It is, I believe, the challenge of striking a balance between, or reconciling, two great objectives – the pursuit of quality and excellence on the one side, and, on the other, the imperative need to make education at all levels accessible in a progressive, modern sense,” he said.

Quality and accessibility, excellence and affordability, aiming high and throwing the doors wide open must not be seen as contradictory, conflicting goals, even if it was easier to reconcile these goals in principle than in practice.

“The tension between these two great goals defines the nature of all serious intellectual and cultural endeavours in a society that strives to excel while being non-elitist, truly democratic in a contemporary sense and just. Emphasise one objective too much, and the endeavour gets into trouble,” he said.

While talking of accessibility, Mr. Ram appreciated the efforts of BIT in providing quality higher education to students in a rural area.

Several factors went into achieving excellence in education. In addition to curriculum, teaching methods, quality and commitment of faculty, transparent admission system and quality of infrastructure, industry-institution linkage played a vital role.

Mr. Ram said research had found that contributions made to the development of the country's software industry and exports came from the burgeoning sector of private engineering colleges in the four southern States and Maharashtra.

He handed over degree certificates to the new graduates and certificates and medals to rank-holders and outstanding students.

Chairman of BIT S.V. Balasubramaniam exhorted the new graduates to set yearly goals and do stock-taking at the end of every year in order to excel in their career.

“Once out of college, you may not be accountable to others. But, be accountable to yourselves in order to succeed in what you do,” he said.

Governing Council member of BIT and Principal Adviser to Confederation of Indian Industry Y.S. Rajan also handed over degree certificates. Other members of the Council and members of the Bannariamman Educational Trust were present.

Educational institutes must lay the base for inclusive society: N. Ram

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