Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday exhorted universities and higher educational institutions in the private sector to earmark certain percentage of seats for the poorer sections and subsidize their education.

Delivering the 9th Convocational Address of the Lovely Professional University at Phagwara, Punjab, he said unfortunately quality private sector education has become out of bounds for the poor and marginalized sections.

“Why should not private universities earmark certain percentage of seats for students belonging to poorer sections and subsidize their education”, he asked.

The Vice President pointed out that public sector alone cannot provide quality higher education for all and the private sector must pitch in.

He said that industries and the private sector in general should supplement the efforts of the government in making quality education available to all.

“Our challenge is to ensure the spread of knowledge to every section and every corner of our country”, he added.

Calling for a complete overhaul of our education system, the Vice President said that majority of our colleges have become mere breading centres for producing students with degree certificates rather than individuals with critical analytical skills.

He expressed concern that students passing out of colleges were lacking the employable skills.