Visakhapatnam: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday appealed to people to study, analyse and debate the Draft New Education Policy and not to come to hasty conclusions.
Noting that core issues of education were very important and deserve the attention of all stakeholders, he said reducing the load of school bags, promoting sports, inculcating morals, scientific and rationale temperament, history among others should become part of the curriculum.
His comments come in the backdrop of a controversy over the recommendation of a HRD ministry panel to teach Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states.
The draft of the new National Education Policy, proposed by the panel constituted by Prakash Javadekar when he was HRD minister in the previous Modi government, had suggested teaching of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states.
The DMK and other parties in Tamil Nadu have strongly opposed the three language formula's continuation with add-on features proposed in the draft National Education Policy alleging it was tantamount to "thrusting" Hindi and wanted it junked.
Inaugurating a two-day conference on 'Industry Academy Interaction for Improvement of Quality of Academics' organized by the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), Naidu called for establishing a symbiotic relationship between academia and the industry to create an ecosystem for innovation to thrive and generate employment for the youth.
For this to be achieved, he wanted the industry to play a more pro-active role and establish a strong organic link with the academic institutions.
The Vice-President asked the Industry and academia to look at long-term collaborations rather than join hands for limited purposes and one-off projects to promote the culture of research in a big way in our universities and other important academic institutions.
Naidu suggested to the corporate entities to identify specific areas of interest and fund doctoral and post-doctoral research connected to them.
He also urged them to set up a special corpus or fund for financing research projects that would lead to innovations, benefit the society and economy of the country.
Pointing out that many students passing out of the portals of higher education institutions were lacking employable skills, Naidu said organisations hiring young graduates were forced to impart further on-the-job training from six months to one year.
Calling for a revamp of the education system, the Vice President said students must not only be employable but also possess life skills, language skills, technological skills and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to be gainfully employed or self-employed.
Expressing concern over instances of atrocities against women and gender discrimination,he said the education system should produce socially responsible citizens and called for bringing about a change in the mindset.
Programmes like 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padao' and Swachh Bharat should become people's movements, he added.
Observing that India was once known as 'Vishwaguru,' Naidu said the country must once again become the global hub for knowledge and innovation.
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