BENGALURU, June 9: Calling for revamp of the entire education system to equip the youth with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for the 21st century, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday asserted that education was one of the major catalysts of growth and nations prosper only when its citizens become educated.
After inaugurating the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, here, he termed the completion of 50 years, as a ‘crucial milestone’ in the journey of the institution and said the achievement was an eloquent testimony to the enduring vision of Sri Satya Sai Baba, an extraordinary guru and a transformational leader, who inspired millions of people across the globe to actively participate in the service of humanity.
Quoting the Kothari Commission’s report of 1964-68 which laid down the country’s education policy, he said, “the destiny of our country shaped in our classrooms.”
Referring to the draft National Education policy 2019 that covers a whole range of issues in great detail, the Vice-President spoke about the need to aim for excellence and equity and called for a pragmatic language policy in which mother tongue and other languages are given due importance in order to help our youth excel in a multilingual world.
Highlighting India’s improving literacy rate, the Vice-President said in the next few years, “we must ensure that our population can read, write, compute, articulate and participate with greater self-confidence in the developmental processes.”
He opined that our school system must be more child-friendly and geared towards a holistic development of each child’s innate faculties and that our higher education system needs to be re-engineered to bring in greater emphasis on excellence in research and teaching, an official statement said.
Mr Naidu emphasised that the crucial responsibility of molding the future rests upon us collectively and asserted that we must not fail.
He spoke of the need to draw inspiration from our country’s great heritage and blend it with the best elements of thought and action from around the globe.
Stating that India is today a knowledge-based economy, Mr Naidu said, “we cannot afford to have a mediocre or qualitatively sub-optimal system of education, if we are to thrive in this rapidly changing world.”
He called for a much larger number of educational institutions that focus on all round development of an individual’s personality.
“The head, hand and heart must develop simultaneously,” he added.
Opining that good quality education gave us the ability to sift the chaff from the grain, Mr Naidu said that it would also liberate us from ignorance, superstition, bigotry, prejudices and narrow tunnel vision.
The Vice-President also said intellectual brilliance must be combined with good deeds and compassionate behavior. Quoting Sri Satya Sai Baba’s words: “Education is for life not merely for living”, he said that education must be as ‘transformational’ and not merely ‘transactional’.
He applauded the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning for continually striving for excellence in education.
Good quality education is truly a Kalpavriksha for the individual, for a country, a nation and for the world. It is a unique treasure.
As the ancient Indian Subhashita goes, “Vyaye krute vardhathaevanityam Vidya dhanam sarvadhana pradhaanam”, Mr Naidu said, “Of all the treasures, education is the most important and most crucial. It is unique because more you share it with others, the more it grows”. (PTI)
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