Adopt 5 villages each, promote higher edu: Guv tells varsities
In a first, school kids invited by Patel to attend tech varsity convocation
Governor Anandiben Patel urged state universities to help improve and promote higher education by adopting five villages each, while calling upon colleges to adopt a village each on the lines of Gujarat, the state she headed as CM for last five years. Patel made the proposal while attending her first convocation ceremony as governor at Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMMUT), in Gorakhpur, on Thursday.
She said that the idea behind was to grant higher education access to all, especially poor children.
Also present along with Patel was CM Yogi Adityanath and Infosys co-founder N Narayanmuthy, who was bestowed with an honorary D Sc (Doctorate of Science) degree on the occasion.
“I will soon convene a meeting of V-Cs in this regard to prepare a blueprint for the proposal. I had launched the same scheme in Gujarat during my tenure as chief minister of that state, under which, universities adopted villages, and it was a great success,” said Patel.
On the occasion, 35 medals were awarded to 21 toppers, while 1,003 students were given degrees.
In the first initiative of its kind, the governor awarded degrees and medals to meritorious students in the presence of children of a government-run primary school. The children were invited as guests by the governor herself, as she wanted the children to understand about higher education and motivate them to pursue it after completing school.
“By watching meritorious university students getting degrees and medals, these children, who are our future, will feel motivated to pursue higher education. They will start dreaming and put in efforts to achieve it,” she said, adding that when she met poor school children and asked them about universities no one had any idea about it.
The governor also called for the need to change the role played by universities, saying that institutions of higher learning needed to impart education which was helpful in making of new India. “PM Modi stresses on the need for self-employment. I ask you all to join a job which creates jobs for others. And for that you need to be self-confident and creative,” she said.
Chief guest Narayanmurthy also called upon students to use their energy, knowledge and talent in right direction to build a strong India.
BOX
Yogi urges youth to work for common man
Speaking at the MMMUT convocation function, chief minister Yogi Adityanath asked students not to use degrees just to seek jobs but to use their university education to contribute to raising the common man’s living standard. “The PM is working tirelessly to make the country ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ by 2022. I want you all to help establish India as super power by helping realise that dream,” the CM said.