Bridge Urban-Rural in Education, says VP

Hyderabad, Feb 3 (INN): "We can transform our students from being job seekers to job creators by building the proper ecosystem for imparting skill-based training in every higher educational institution," Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu said while addressing the students of the Dr D. Rama Naidu Vignana Institute of Rural Development and the members of the Vignana Jyothi Society in Hyderabad today.

Naidu applauded the initiatives of the Vignana Jyothi Society formed by a group of selfless philanthropic entrepreneurs for establishing a string of educational institutions, which have grown into centres of excellence over the years.

Sharing his thoughts on education, the Vice President said that an ideal educational institution must focus on making a student into a holistic individuals by equipping them to face the challenges of life with equanimity and stability. He advised educational institutions to employ counsellors to provide support and guidance to students during challenging times. Naidu opined that education must lay the foundation for developing a society that is strongly grounded in morals, ethics and value systems. He suggested that there a need to revamp our education system to improve standards and impart world class learning. He lamented that none of our Indian universities figured in top ranking global institutions.

The Vice President also said that education should make students think innovatively and come out with bright, out-of-box solutions to overcome challenges. He advised that our education system should also focus on our traditional crafts, arts and the way we preserve and protect local varieties of seeds.

Highlighting the urgent need to bridge the urban rural divide in terms of education, Naidu lamented that rural youth had limited access to quality educational programmes. 'Access to education to all levels is essential for inclusive growth', he added. Naidu called for greater synergy between the private, public and co-operative sectors in creating more avenues for skilled jobs in the villages. He reasoned that this would strengthen food security and improve the living conditions of rural people.

Terming the Dr D. Rama Naidu Vignana Institute of Rural Development located in Medak District as a unique initiative, the Vice President proposed that all state governments should have such institutions of excellence that provide training and skilling to farmers and others hailing from rural areas. He opined that such Institutes could play a vital role in building rural economy that is self sustainable and inclusive, while creating the eco-system for generating jobs based on local needs.

Expressing concern over lack of focus on rural upliftment needs as a result of which unplanned expansion of urban slums was happening, the Vice President urged policy-makers, planners, and civil society to adopt a conscious, pronounced bias towards rural development. Naidu said that agriculture should be made profitable and sustainable by encouraging farmers to diversify into allied activities such as bee keeping, poultry, horticulture, sericulture, and dairy. He also emphasized upon the need to focus on food processing in view of the huge potential the sector has to improving agrarian economy, raise farm incomes, reduce wastages, ensure value addition, promote crop diversification and generate employment opportunities and export earnings.

Outlining the major challenges faced by agriculture such as declining productivity, diminishing and degrading natural resources, fragmented land holdings, unprecedented climate change etc., Naidu said that these challenges need to be tackled on a war footing through structural changes and policy interventions from the Union Government and State Governments.