Students who are not fluent in English need not worry as they can learn the language easily, said vice-president of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Sekar Viswanathan, here on Tuesday.
Mr. Viswanathan distributed admission letters to students selected under the STARS programme at an orientation programme.
VIT’s ‘Support The Advancement of Rural Students’ (STARS) programme aims to provide underprivileged rural students opportunities to pursue quality education. Every year, students get selected from rural Tamil Nadu after having topped the higher secondary examinations conducted by the State government.
Addressing the students, he said, “Don’t stop conversing in English even if you are wrong as you will learn the language only by learning from mistakes. One should look at VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan as an example. He studied in Tamil medium and because of his untiring efforts he became fluent in English and later became an orator in the language. He used to read the English newspapers daily and find out the meanings for difficult words using a dictionary. You too should cultivate the habit. We will offer special training programme for students to learn English,” he added, pointing out that students should also love their mother tongue.
VIT executive director, Sandhya Pentareddy, urged students to maintain punctuality in life and put in their best effort.
Felicitating the students, Vellore District Chief Educational Officer (CEO) S. Mars said students should utilise the opportunity provided by VIT and come up with flying colours.
VIT alumnus and senior director of Dell, Elavarasan Krishnan, referred to the selected students as ‘Stars’.
Registrar K. Sathiyanarayanan, Vice-Chancellor Anand A.Samuel, Pro vice-chancellor S. Narayanan and convener of STARS programme S. Meenakshi spoke on the occasion.