Pallam Raju against pressurising students

“I visited the some of the Sainik schools and also MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) schools recently and found that glaring loopholes on nurturing the students on attaining leadership skills. Students and teachers should identify right students and coach them, the youth of today have unlimited exposure and we have to unleash it to the maximum extent,” he advised. Explaining the goals of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), he said “We targeted to impart skills to fifty crore youth by 2022. No doubt this is gigantic task. But let me tell you, we could identify a lot of companies in the last three years which evinced interest in imparting training or making the students’ industry-ready. This is precisely our task. We have a demographic advantage that could help propel the country’s growth, provided youths got the right education and skill training. Nearly three million students were being graduated every year but not even 25 per cent of tech graduates have employable skills,”

The union minister expressed satisfaction over private sector participation in the Higher Education. “Many companies and industries have been keen on supporting various projects. This is a healthy sign. I think this will bolster employment opportunities in good measure,” he said.

Stating that the situation of school education has changed so dramatically after the advent of RTE Act, Pallam Raju admitted that there is a huge crunch of teachers across the country. “There has been massive expansion.

A school is being established per every kilometer. As a result, there is a shortfall of teachers but I m confident that this teacher-student ratio will also go up in the coming years,” Raju said. Advising the privileged schools to extend their part on promoting education, he cautioned them not to be too harsh on collecting fee.

Stressing on values, Pallam Raju opined that the education is meaningless if it is not backed by proper value system. ‘We forget our basic responsibilities very conveniently,’ he remarked. He also said that the nation must tap the services of ex -service men into the education eco-system.

Dr Shanta Sinha, Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, exhorted the schools to earmark 25 percent of seats to the students of underprivileged sections. ‘There could be assimilation or resources crunch but it should not affect any child. Discrimination can be between elders to an extent, but not between children. Schools should never be for inequalities and exclusion. Wealthy or rich, all children are equal,” she underlined. Every management should think on what role the private schools can play in demolishing the education apartheid, Sinha suggested.

Justice Subhashan Reddy, the Lokayukta criticised that private schools have become ‘education- selling shops’. He suggested that since the resources have been exhausted each passing year, steps like population control can help utilise the resources in a better way. He supported the views of Shanta Sinha on earmarking 25 per cent of seats in all private schools as prescribed by the Supreme Court.

Gen. Ray, CEO of the Indus Trust which organised the event, felt that future competition will not be between competing technologies, competing economic systems and competing political ideologies, it will be between competing education systems. Dr GN Rao, Dr Subramanian, Padmasri awardee also spoke on the occasion. Indus Trust announced the best idea award for citizens to redress leadership crisis in Schools. The entries for this award are open to all citizens and the winner will receive a cash prize from the Trust.