Chandigarh: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was honored with the degree of Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) at a special convocation of Panjab University, Chandigarh recently.
On this occasion, he also laid the foundation stone of multipurpose auditorium cum examination centre of the University.

He started his speech by expressing his nostalgia, "I am deeply indebted to this great university for whatever I have achieved. I spent some of the best years of my life here. I have no hesitation in saying that the education I received in Panjab University has played a major part in whatever I have achieved in life. It is, therefore, with great humility that I have received today's recognition. It is an honor that I will always cherish."

Dr. Singh, who was conferred with his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Economics from the University in 1952 and 1954 and became its professor at the age of 32, said that, "I truly feel proud to have been associated with this great institution, both as a student and later as a faculty member."

Highlighting the importance of education in the modern society, he held it to be a potent and powerful tool for empowering people to lead a life of dignity and self-respect.

He further added, "It is also essential for achieving sustained high economic growth. We live in an age where human knowledge is increasing exponentially and countries have to make an effort to remain on the frontiers of knowledge and be counted amongst the advanced nations. Therefore, in the last five years or so, the Central government has made unprecedented efforts for expanding and improving educational facilities at all levels. In fact, I often refer to the Eleventh Five Year Plan as an Education Plan."

Realizing the gigantic task to provide access to education to every citizen of our country, he shared his vision by comparing our standard of education with that of the developed countries.

"At present, in any year, only about 12% of the students who complete secondary education enroll for higher education. This does not at all compare well with the figure of about 70% in some developed countries. It is also much lower than the figure of about 20% in some South East Asian countries. If India has to march ahead, we must increase this proportion," said Dr. Singh.

He strongly proposed his idea by seeking to address the present imbalances in our higher education system in terms of gender and region.

He said that the urge to pursue higher education among the females needs to be empowered and the gender gap must be leveled.

Stressing on the need to produce harmony and balance among the states he emphasized the disparity by stating that, "Nearly half of the institutions of higher learning exist in only five states of our Union, and approximately 70% of the total intake capacity for professional courses exists in another five states."

The Prime Minister felt that on comparing the quality of our higher education with the international standards we still lag far behind with even the pass-outs not fitting anywhere near the international standards.

With the dire need to address these issues, the PM said, "The Central government has announced a very progressive pay package for attracting and retaining talented faculty. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has raised the entry level standards for fresh faculty members and has also started new training programmes for them."