GUWAHATI, May 9 � �The aim of education in a democracy is to educate, enlighten and take the largest number of human beings under its wings. Education is not meant for a select few who enjoy all privileges of life.�
Inaugurating the Learners� Conference of the North East Region, organised by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at Guwahati, State Governor JB Patnaik stressed the need to take education to more and more people in the country.
�The IGNOU has extended education to those learners who cannot leave their homes or workplace for study. It has taken under its fold an enormous body of professionals, who would like to enhance their capabilities while continuing with their jobs. Indeed IGNOU is one of the most important innovations in the academic field in our country,� he mentioned while delivering his speech.
Stressing the need to develop the human resources through proper education and training, he said that the conventional way of teaching people would not be able to meet the challenges.
�Even after 60 years of independence, the gross enrollment ratio in higher education in the country is quite low in comparison to the world average. The country has now formulated the Rastriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan in order to ensure the universal secondary education by the year 2017,� he added.
He also mentioned that the next aim of the government is to enhance the gross enrollment rate in higher education by 20 per cent in 2020.
�We are the largest democracy in the world and our success depends on an educated and enlightened public. Education is meant for freeing the people from the fetters of ignorance, hunger, diseases and squalor,� he mentioned.
Further appreciating the initiatives of IGNOU in the Northeast, he said that the NE unit has steered a number of activities for the people of this region, which are relevant and cater to the requirements of the people of this region.