MADURAI: "Dream big, work hard to fulfil your dreams. Never ever give up your self-confidence. Sky is the limit," Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi said, as he handed over degree certificates to graduates in the 29th convocation ceremony of Mother Teresa University at Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU).
Lauding the initiatives taken by Tamil Nadu, Ravi said the State has done much better than any other state in the country empowering women. "Though the ratio of women completing higher education is more than men (3:1), it is a challenge to make them financially secure," he said.
Commenting on the 'Save Daughter, Educate Daughter' scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ravi said Modi believed that daughters are the future of the country. "Female foeticide and gender issues are still prevalent in some parts of the State. We lost millions of girls. It is very unfortunate and the practice to be erased completely," he said.
National anthem was sung twice.
Deviating from the usual practice of starting the convocation ceremony by singing 'Tamil Thai Valthu' (The State song), the function at Mother Teresa University commenced and ended with the singing of the national anthem.
When asked, Vice-Chancellor Vaidehi Vijayakumar said any programme that is attended by Governor will have to start and end with the national anthem.
TNIE came to know that the convocation ceremony at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) also started with the national anthem.
MSU V-C K Pitchumani said the itinerary they received from the governor's office demanded so and they simply followed it.
A total of 18,000 graduates, who completed their course in 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years, were awarded degree certificates by the university. As many as 549 graduates received their certificates at the convocation ceremony and the rest 17,451 received them through postal mail.
Minister for Higher Education K Ponmudy, Vice-Chancellor of Mother Teresa University Vaidehi Vijayakumar, Vice-Chancellor of Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati, Prof. Jamuna Duvvuru, Principal Secretary to the Higher Education Department D Karthikeyan, Mother Teresa University Registrar (i/c) C Hilda Devi were present on the occasion.