The two day West Zone Vice Chancellor’s (WZVC) Seminar started today. 40 Vice Chancellors of different universities of the west zone of India are participating in the seminar.

In the inauguration ceremony held today at The City Palace’s Darbar Hall, special guests and the vice chancellors as well, shared their opinions on the present scenario of the education system in India and means of its development while also keeping in mind the economical condition of the students.

The Theme of the conference is Higher Education in India: A Perennial Quest for Excellence.

The chief guests of the program were Dr. CP Joshi –Union minister for Road Transport and Highways, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia – Deputy Chairman-Planning Commission, Ishar Singh Ahluwalia – President, High power committee for urban development , Pankaj T. Chande-President of Vice Chancellors council, Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar –of the Maharana Mewar Charitable Trust, D.S. Chundawat – Dean B.N College, and Prof. I.V Trivedi – Vice Chancellor, M.L.S.U.

The program commenced by lightning of the lamp and a welcome speech by Professor I.V Trivedi which was followed by speeches of the present guests.

Dr. C.P Joshi addressing the present guests and attendees said that-“while developing the gross employment ratio in higher education, we should also keep in mind about enhancing the professional skills of students,which is very important to get them best employment and it is certainly not possible just by a degree or qualification in academics till students does not get professional training.

He added, “In this age of knowledge based economic structure, there is an urgent need of reform in our traditional educational curriculum.”

Emphasizing on vocational trainings, Dr. C.P Joshi said, “we have a vast automobile industry in India, from Fiat and Ambassador to cars worth lacs and crores of rupees ,but till now, no arrangements have been made to give training to drive these cars. Roads and Highways play a vital role in developing the economical condition of India but still, we lack skilled professionals in this field.

Education curriculum should be designed according to the present situation from both social and commercial aspects.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia said- “In India, still only 14% students who passes 12th standard enrolls themselves for higher education which is very less. In the next 10 years, this percentage should reach a mark of 20% and that’s a challenging task which needs financial backup, which is again not possible for a single state to do. Private and PPP mode could be helpful to increase GER.

Instead of contracts in colleges and universities there should be career appointment so that we can expect quality education.

He rejected the idea of opening 14 International Universities, he  instead insisted that “we should pick out 50 universities who have the capacity of providing best education and develop them as ‘Centers of Excellence’ and to achieve that we need top educators and academicians selected on the basis of specialization and not categorization.” And in order to achieve the goal the recruitment of teachers can also be done from outside.

Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar ,while addressing the conference said-“education should not only be based on present commercial situation, but there should be special focus on teaching moral issues to students to bring out that religious harmony we used to carry before”. Giving example of Mewar’s historical section he said that “religious harmony was initiated in the land of mewar where a Muslim Pathan (Hakim Khan Suri) was holding the post of commander in the army of Maharana Pratap.”

Ishar Singh Ahluwalia -President of High Power Committee for Urban Development said “In 2031 the urban population will increase by a factor of 40%, and the three fourth portions of basic utility products will be under industries and services. So we need to design educational structure with far sightedness so that coming up generation can use it to cater to the future demands.”

Professor I.V Trivedi showed his concern over the low literacy rate in rural and tribal areas, which is just half of the national literacy rate. He demanded the authorities to give special attention on this worrisome situation.

He also insisted on flexible terms to be introduced by UGC for colleges and universities to develop their institutions.

Professor Pankaj Pandey shed light of The Association of Indian Universities,saying that before giving entrance to foreign universities a pre- assurance should be made that by paying high to deans of Indian universities they will not harm the educational system of India.