Karnataka - Mysore   

Professional courses should be affordable: Ananthamurthy

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, JULY 27. The noted writer and Jnanpith Award winner U.R. Ananthamurthy today said that the Government should take steps to ensure that professional courses were within the reach of poor meritorious students in the State.

Speaking to presspersons here during the inaugural function of a refresher course in English organised by the Academic Staff College at the University of Mysore, Dr. Ananthamurthy said "neither the hike in fees nor the seat-sharing formula should deprive a meritorious student of access to higher education."

He noted that private professional colleges had come up as the Government alone could not provide the facilities. But the Government should adhere to the principle of social justice and ensure that professional courses were accessible to all, he said.

`Fee high'

When his views were sought on the fee structure for the medical course in private medical colleges, he said: "It is indeed very high. It may not be possible even for me to send my son to a medical course."

At the same time, Dr. Ananthamurthy noted that the cost involved in maintaining a medical college was very high as a hospital had to be managed along with the college. The revenue generated by the hospital was not sufficient to manage a medical college, he said. However, he observed that professional educational institutions should be allowed to raise resources to provide good infrastructure. But the resource mobilisation by the institutions should be controlled to the extent that it was sustainable and sufficient.

Alternatives

Dr. Ananthamurthy exuded the confidence that religious heads and political leaders who ran a majority of the private professional colleges would help settle the matter amicably. In the present context, alternatives should be explored instead of criticising the existing system, he said.

Only then could the objective of providing higher education be achieved.

Earlier, inaugurating the refresher course, Dr. Ananthamurthy observed that English had witnessed many changes over the years. During the earlier years, English liberalised society and democratised the population, he said. Now, it had become the language of commerce in the world. Students wanted teachers to teach them good English sufficient to read and write, he said. In India, there were many languages that were better than English, he added. The Chairman of the Department of Studies in English at the University of Mysore, K.C. Belliappa, and the Director of the Academic Staff College, K. Byrappa, were present.

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