'93 pc population has no access to varsity'

Varanasi, Oct 27: About 93 per cent of the country's population has no access to university education, secretary general of Association of Indian Universities (AIU) Dayanand Dongaonkar has said.

Interacting with newspersons here, yesterday he said only seven per cent of the population has access to varsity education. ''In such an awful state there is urgency for meaningful changes in India's higher education system,'' Professor Dongaonkar said.

Professor Dongaonkar is here to attend the five-day national workshop on 'Management of University Administration' underway at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Speaking about the problem of dropouts in the schooling system, he said the present dropout rate in schools was 63 per cent nationally.

The states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had the dubious distinction of having the maximum percentage of school dropouts at 80 per cent, while Goa figured at the lowest rung of the ladder with 38 per cent, he said.

Caste wise national break up showed that 89 per cent and 90 per cent school dropout rate were prevalent among SC and ST students respectively. ''Urgent steps are needed to check this imbalance in the educational system,'' The Professor said.

UNI