KANNUR: Kannur University Vice-Chancellor P. Chandramohan on Thursday said the defective education system was the major factor that impeded economic growth of the State.

"We have become a model in social fields, but are lagging behind in economic growth," Dr. Chandramohan said while inaugurating a two-day national seminar on `Kerala economy - prospects for development under vision 2010' being organised by the Economics Department of the KMM Government Women's College. Universal primary education had contributed to the social development of the State, he said adding that the State's achievements in the field of education and healthcare were comparable to those in the developed countries.

The Vice-Chancellor said only 7.6 per cent of the relevant population in the State were in the higher education sector.

He said the State was not able to do justice to the concept of education as a process of identifying dominant talents of students.

Underlining the importance of modernising the curriculum, he said there should be efforts to prepare skill inventory of students at the elementary level. This could be an answer to the problem of unemployment of educated youth, he added.

As economic development of the State depended on the service sector, which, in turn, was dependent on human resource, there should be concerted efforts for the development of human resource, Dr. Chandramohan said.

Referring to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's 10-point agenda for the State's development, he said the President had given thrust to nursing education, as Western countries were looking for trained nurses from Kerala. Citing non-availability of teaching faculty as a major problem faced by nursing colleges in the region, he said the State Government should take up with the Central authority on nursing education the proposal to share faculty members among the institutions.

He also stressed the need to improve research facilities in Ayurveda.

Delivering the keynote address, the former administrator Murkot Ramunny said the State was badly in need of technical institutions.

Stating that the Kerala model of development was mainly about education and healthcare, he said social development should lead to material production, which alone could sustain social development. "We have not given the youth the right type of education that will fetch them the right kind of jobs," he said.

Lamenting that few higher education institutions in the region had any system for providing career information, Mr. Ramunny said education today was communalised and commercialised.

He emphasised the importance of a good infrastructure system, including roads, railway and ports. Transport infrastructure in North Malabar was pathetic, he said.

College Principal T. Ramadevi presided.

The university Syndicate member E. Kunhiraman and Controller of Examinations K.P. Jayarajan offered felicitations.

The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions on `Post-globalisation scenario in Kerala,' `Women development' and `Role of banks in agriculture sector.'

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail