GUWAHATI, July 20 � �If we do not reform the skill-development education and higher education sector as a whole in an extraordinary manner, the demographic dividend of the country with the largest number of younger population all over the world, would turn into a demographic disaster.�
Delivering the fourth Foundation Day lecture of the Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University today, Dr Narendra Jadav, member of the Planning Commission and former Vice Chancellor of the Pune University stressed on the need to harness the human resource of the country to the maximum with good quality education.
�India�s transition towards emerging as a global reservoir of skilled manpower and becoming an economic powerhouse critically depends on our ability to leverage our demographic dividend. The education and skill development sector holds the key in this regard and that is why these sectors should be reformed and made more robust and wide- looking,� he said.
Delivering on the topic �Higher Education in India: In retrospect and prospect� he mentioned that in the coming 18 months, the education system in India is going to see a metamorphic change. �The changes would be in the forms of new legislations, largely based on the recommendations of the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission. As it has been observed by the experts that higher education sector in India is over regulated but under-governed, plans are on the cards to constitute a national commission of higher education and research, by dissolving and merging the existing educational regulatory bodies,� he mentioned.
Breaking the topic into the sub heads of access to education, quality of education and the employability of the students who pass out from the higher educational institutes of the country, particularly the technical ones, he gave a detailed analysis of the prevailing educational scenario in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who also inaugurated the foundation lecture programme, said that the State government is putting emphasis on upgrading the higher educational institutes in Assam and bringing in new institutes in the State. �We want to open-up skill development centres in all the blocks of the State,� he mentioned.
Governor of Assam Janaki Ballav Patnaik, in his deliberations said that within a short span of its inception, the KK Handique State Open University has become very popular in Assam, as it is reflected from the increasing number of enrolments and also the increasing number of study centres across the State. �It provides a great opportunity to the people who cannot pursue higher education through traditional method due to certain reasons,� he mentioned. State Education Minister Gautam Bora also spoke on the occasion.
The foundation day of the Open University is observed on July 20 to mark the birth anniversary of noted scholar Krishna Kanta Handique. The Vice Chancellor of the university Srinath Barua gave an account of various new degree, diploma and certificate courses to be launched in the university. In an exceptional example of facilitation education to the disadvantageous sections of the society, the university has launched three study centres in the Guwahati, Jorhat and Abhayapuri Central Jails, where education is provided to the interested inmates free of cost.