Match quantity with quality in higher education: President

President Pranab Mukherjee today said government's effort to increase "quantity" in higher education exponentially must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve "quality".

Inaugurating conference of Directors of National Institutes of Technology, first-ever convened by a President, Mukherjee noted the Government is investing huge amount of resources in higher education.

"The effort to increase 'quantity' exponentially must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve 'quality'. We must lead our institutions into the ranks of the best such institutions in the world," he said.

"This is for the first time that such a Conference is being convened by the President, who is Visitor to all NITs," a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Mukherjee said India's biggest strength in the coming years is going to be her demographic dividend.

The President said more than 50 percent of the population is under 25 and soon one-fifth of the world's working age population will be in India.

"This dividend is, however, something we cannot take for granted. We must urgently equip our youth with necessary skills and jobs," he said.

Underlining the successful launch of country's Mars mission, the President said the model set by ISRO scientists must be emulated in other areas as well.

Mukherjee said this conference was being held just two days after India attained a very significant milestone in the field of space exploration through the launch of the Mangalaayan Mission.