Shillong, Nov 22: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said the newly inaugurated Kendriya Hindi Sansthan (KHS) Centre near here would work for the benefit of Hindi teachers and people eager to learn and do research in the language.
He said the KHS centre will cater to the states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Speaking at the inauguration of the new centre, Pradhan expressed gratitude to the Meghalaya government for providing the necessary assistance including the required land for setting up of this important institute at Mawdiangdiang near here. He said, The newly inaugurated Kendriya Hindi Sansthan Centre near here would work for the benefit of teachers of Hindi and people eager to learn and do research in the language and will cater to the states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
Pradhan said the New Education Policy 2020 is a visionary approach to transform the education landscape of the country and to achieve the realistic goal and to percolate its ripple effect to the grassroots. One of most important salient features of the NEP, the Union Minister said, is on imparting education in the mother tongue at the primary level and the government is striving to achieve the target within the stipulated time frame.
Acknowledging the diversity of culture, language and tradition of this country and the co-existence amid this diversity, the Union Minister said that it is because of the beauty of this language that people can share each other's tradition and rich heritage.
He said that technology should be used extensively to preserve and enrich native languages so that people can use the internet in their native languages and make people from other parts of the world aware about their rich culture and tradition. These practices will encourage innovation and creativity among the youths and may show light to the world about many relevant issues concerning the people.
The Union Education minister while acknowledging the rich culture of this region said, There are many things to learn from this region, it has a very rich heritage and is strong in natural resources. There have been many good educational institutions coming up in this region including IIM's new campus.
Pradhan said that there is a lot to do for the youths of the region and exhorted everyone to work for providing a better environment for the young generation.
He said, I have been informed that Meghalaya has around 3.5 lakh college going students and it is the collective responsibility of everyone to build a conducive environment to ensure their quality education, skilling, raising their employability capability and imbibing inside them the value of fundamental research. The first step towards this effort would be to simplify the process of learning languages .
The minister also referred to the North-East Education Conclave that was held in Guwahati on Saturday and said that the North East Region has nearly 180 languages and dialects spoken by various tribes and communities and it is the mandate of the NEP to develop and preserve this heritage.
In the days to come Kendriya Hindi Sansthan and English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) will function as a Centre of Excellence and will work with the Government of Meghalaya to preserve and enrich Khasi, Garo and Jaintia languages with the help of technology, he added.
The Union minister was categorical when he said that language is a tool that connects people from across the world and the availability of applications in the internet to learn languages of this region will enable people from outside the state to know about the rich culture and heritage of this region.
Pradhan also released two books during the programme - Sam nvay Purvottar Sanchayan and Hindi-khasi-Garo-Jaintia-English Concise Dictionary. He appreciated the efforts for bringing out the Concise Dictionary and said that this will help in learning the languages.
The Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad K Sangma, expressed his happiness for the inauguration of the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan in his state and said that the presence of this institute will help the youths of Meghalaya and the entire Northeast region to learn Hindi and also to excel in this language.
Meghalaya Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui, renowned educationist and Co-founder of Sanskrit Bharati, Chamu Krishna Shastry, Director of Kendriya Hindi Sansthan Prof Beena Sharma and senior officials of the Central and state government were also present during the programme.
