Transform students from job seekers to job creators: VP

Hyderabad, Feb 4 (IANS) Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said educational institutions should impart skill based training to transform students from being job seekers to job creators, suggesting need to revamp education system to meet world class learning.

For the purpose, Naidu, while addressing the students of Dr. D. Rama Naidu Vignana Jyothi Institute of Rural Development and the members of the Vignana Jyothi Society here, stressed on building "proper ecosystem" in every higher educational institution.

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 also 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 and suggested that there is 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.

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

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 said.

Naidu called for greater synergy between the private, public and co-operative sectors in creating more avenues for skilled jobs in the villages and reasoned that this would strengthen food security and improve the living conditions of rural people.

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.