Coimbatore: Madras High Court Judge Anand Venkatesh said the educated were committing most crimes today, particularly cybercrimes, and stressed the need for an education system that also develops human values.

Speaking at an award ceremony here, Justice Venkatesh said farming and teaching were among the noblest professions as they addressed both physical hunger and the hunger for knowledge.

The judge was speaking after presenting the Headmaster S Jagannathan Memorial Award to Arulshiva, a teacher at the Government School in Velliangadu. The event was organised by the Govindarajulu Vanajatchi Memorial Trust.

Justice Venkatesh said students today faced pressure from marks, rankings, competitive examinations and entrance tests, raising questions about whether such an approach represented the right way to pursue education.

"Speaking as a judge, I must state that today, it is the educated who commit the most crimes," he said, adding that perpetrators of cybercrimes were invariably well-educated individuals.

He said people did not always live in accordance with the education they had received and that education had increasingly become a means of earning a livelihood.

Referring to the growing use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, Justice Venkatesh said AI technology could teach lessons better than human teachers in certain respects.

However, he said AI lacked the human element possessed by teachers and could not understand the emotions of students.

"AI technology cannot comprehend the emotions of students," he said, adding that such an approach could not constitute a healthy education system or bring about social change.

Poet Ravisubramanian presided over the event. Velayutham, proprietor of Vijaya Publications, writer Nalantha Jambulingam and others also spoke on the occasion.