Expressing concern over the low level of employability among the educated youth in the country, Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that it was time now for revisiting the education system and ensuring that schooling and skilling went together.
He was addressing a public gathering after inaugurating the ‘Deshpande Skilling Centre‘, a skill development centre off Airport Road, and interacting with students here on Saturday.
Terming the large young Indian population as a demographic dividend, which provided great opportunities and also challenges, Mr. Naidu said that education should also lead to enlightenment, enhancement of knowledge, empowerment, and employability. The new education policy should also address the issues of skilling and scaling as the country has a huge manpower.
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Mr. Naidu said: “Acquiring and upgrading skills is crucial as the world around is changing rapidly. In a country which is known for unity in diversity, creating opportunities is important. And in this regard, industries should try to establish better linkage with educational institutions like it is done in the West to train and create opportunities for the youth,” he said.
The Vice-President advised the students not to forget their mother tongue in their craze for learning new languages, particularly English. “Learning English is good. But don’t become an Englishman. Let the medium be English, but culture should remain Indian,” he said.
Giving tips to youngsters on what they should remember while they try to achieve something in their lives, he asked them not to forget their mother, mother tongue, motherland, guru (teacher), and culture of the land. He also asked them to be positive in their approach and shun negativism.
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Maintaining that loan waiver was not a solution to the problems of farmers, the Vice-President stressed the need for efforts to increase yield, create facilities for storage and value addition so that the yield fetched better prices, better credit facilities to the farmers, newer ideas in farming, and better marketing for the farm products.
People’s contribution
Mr. Naidu said that there was a need for everyone to be part of the country’s development. “You should not leave everything to the government. Non-governmental organisations have a great role in development by joining hands with the government and people should also contribute,” he said.
The Vice-President appealed to the people of the country not to indulge in violence as it would spoil their future because ultimately, the losses would be recovered from them through increase in tariff and taxes. He also appealed to the youngsters not to miss any opportunity to go out of the country in search of jobs or for higher education but requested them to earn and return to their motherland to give back to the society.
Mentioning that only 4.9% of the graduates in the country had the required skills, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi lauded the initiative taken by serial entrepreneur Gururaj Deshpande for helping the students acquire skills and asked the students to make efforts to learn other languages.
Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar briefed about the government initiatives and lauded Mr. Deshpande for giving back to the society.
Felicitated
Mr. Deshpande and the Ministers felicitated Mr. Naidu on the occasion. Co-founder of Deshpande Foundation Jayshree Deshpande, MLAs Aravind Bellad and Shankar Patil Munenakoppa were present.