Make J&K hub of knowledge, says President Ram Nath Kovind
New Delhi: Determined efforts should be made to make Jammu and Kashmir a hub of knowledge, innovation and learning by implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP) in letter and spirit, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Sunday.
He said Jammu and Kashmir is a reservoir of extremely intelligent, talented and innovative children and the implementation of the new education policy will produce students with ignited minds.
“Determined efforts should be made to make the paradise a hub of knowledge, innovation and learning by implementing NEP in letter and spirit. These steps would make Jammu and Kashmir once again a ‘Firdaus on the earth, a bright jewel on the crown of Mother India’ as it was referred to in the medieval age,” Kovind said.
The President made the comments during a conference on the implementation of the NEP in Jammu and Kashmir.
“India has an unprecedented demographic dividend but it could be positively realised only if the young people constituting a substantial segment of the population become skilled, professionally competent, and above all educated in the real sense,” he said. Citing the examples of Kalhana’s Rajtarangini and the Mahayana Buddhism, the tenets of which were popular in Kashmir, the President opined that history of India’s cultural traditions would remain incomplete without taking them into consideration.
“It is important to understand our tradition and rich cultural heritage which can be achieved only in our mother tongue. It is this mother tongue that is being encouraged in the new education policy as it adheres to the cultural ethos of our country,” he said.
The NEP approved by the Union Cabinet in July replaces the National Policy on Education framed in 1986 and is aimed at paving the way for “transformational reforms” in schools and higher education systems to make India a “global knowledge superpower”. “The three-language formula which is envisioned in this policy is of immense significance and could promote multilingualism as well as national unity but at the same time no language will be imposed on any state or union territory,” the President said. (PTI)
