The Hindu : National : Create job-generators than job-seekers: President

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 18, 2007
ePaper

National

National

Create job-generators than job-seekers: President

Kolkata Bureau

Says education system should also build research capability

— Photo: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH

CALL FOR SPECIALISATION: A student being handed over a citation by President Abdul Kalam, who launched the Centenary Scholarship Fund at the Calcutta Club on Thursday. — Photo: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH

Kolkata: "The aim of the education system should be to create employment-generators rather than employment-seekers, apart from building research capability," President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said here on Thursday.

"The graduates who come out of universities need to have specialisation-linked employment potential," he added.

Addressing an assembly of students and teachers of the National Council of Education, Bengal, he called for evolving a national policy for creating a "global human development cadre for India" through a national team drawing experts from multiple ministries, experts from the three sectors of the economy and various professional associations.

"Evolution of such a policy in a time-bound manner will generate quality, knowledge and skills needed by all sectors of the Indian economy and globally employable human resources," Mr. Kalam said.

His speech "Mission of Education: Capacity Building," marked the inauguration of a year-long programme celebrating the centenary of the farewell address given by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, then Principal, Bengal National College, to the students of the National Council of Education, Bengal on August 23, 1907.

Universities and the school educational system need to create two cadres of personnel, Mr. Kalam said. They were "a global cadre of skilled youth with specific knowledge of special skills" and "another global cadre of youth with higher education." "These two cadres will be required not only for powering the manufacturing and services sectors of India but also for fulfilling the society's human resources requirements globally," he said.

Later, at a function organised by the Calcutta Club to mark its centenary year Mr. Kalam launched a centenary scholarship fund to enable needy students to pursue higher studies. A fund-raising dinner hosting Amitabh Bachchan had raised Rs.10 lakh towards an initial corpus of Rs.50 lakh.

Ascent mode

Describing this as good societal mission, Mr. Kalam said that while India was in an ascent phase and the Gross Domestic Product growth was nearly nine per cent annually "it was evident that economic growth was not fully reflected in the quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas and even in some urban areas."

There was also a need to find ways of rooting out the fundamental causes of terrorism, he added.

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

National