A high rate of unemployment among educated youth in the country remains a major cause of concern because only around one lakh graduates are employed as against around 14 lakh graduates who pass out every year in the country, said M.R. Jayaram, Chairman, Gokula Education Foundation (GEF) and Chancellor at M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Delivering his inaugural address at the annual students scholarships for 2023-24, which was organised by the University Higher Education Trust of VIT at its campus here, Mr. Jayaram said that the problem of high rate of unemployment was not restricted to India but to the rest of the countries as they struggle to create adequate jobs for educated youth. “In such a scenario, students should not restrict themselves to classroom learning. They should also equip themselves by acquiring special skill sets that are required in industries related to their streams for better employability,” he said.
In his presidential address, G. Viswanathan, founder chancellor, VIT, said that inadequate allocation of funds on education by the governments at the Centre and State level has only increased the financial burden of parents, especially those who enrol their wards to private schools. For example at VIT, only 800 students were given government scholarships in the institution that has around 40,000 students, he said.
Comparing Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of western countries and southeast Asian countries with India, the Chancellor said that advanced countries like the USA, Germany, France, U.K and South Korea have 90 percent, 75 percent, 70 percent, 60 percent and 100 percent of GER respectively whereas only 27 percent in India that has 1,100 universities and 59,000 colleges as per 2011 census. However, in terms of higher education enrolment, only four crore students pursue higher studies in India every year with around 10 crore students not enrolling themselves for higher education due to high costs, he said.
Mr. Viswanathan said that States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh have GER around 40% to 50 % whereas bigger States like U.P. and Bihar have only 24% and 15% GER respectively. It has been reflected in the per capita income of these States. For example, the southern States on an average has ₹ 3,500 to ₹ 4,000 per capita income whereas U.P. and Bihar have less than ₹ 1,000 each per year.
At the event, 957 students were given scholarships to the tune of ₹ 1 crore for 2023-24. Of the total 8,416 beneficiaries since the initiative was started over a decade ago, 5,591 students are first generation learners.
