Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India and an eminent scientist shared his vision for reforming education while delivering valedictory address to conclude the World Education Summit 2011. He urged the university and school education system to create two cadres to build a global human resource
The curtain went up again after the closing of all the sessions, the hall was jam packed and eyes were focused on the dais to see the icon Dr APJ Adul Kalam, former President of India and an eminent scientist speaking at the World Education Summit. He delivered his valedictory address to conclude the three day event, which received huge applause from Dr Kalam for national and international participation, schools, colleges, community colleges and for the number of recommendations it had brought out. The closing ceremony was chaired by Dr Ravi Gupta, Convenor-Wolrd Education Summit and Editor-in-Chief, digitalLEARNING Magazine in the gracious presence of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India, Dr MP Narayanan, President-CSDMS and former Chairman, Coal India, Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor IGNOU, Loynpo Thakur S Powdyel, Minister of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan and Dr Taseer Al Nuaimi, Education Minister of Jordan.
Dr Abdul Kalam admired the concept of World Education Summit and gave a message to all the participants that India should be open to sharing expertise and experience available to many nations. At the same time it should also keep in mind the need of educating 600 million people and hence Indian policy, education and training has to walk on its own shadow. India has to build its own education system with employability as a key focus.”
He also urged that the university and school education system should create two cadres to build a global human resource. First is the global cadre of skilled youth spreading knowledge of special skills and the second is the global cadre of youth in higher education with relevant expertise, which covers not only the service sector of India but also the skilled human resource requirement globally. These two cadres will attract the manufacturing and service sector in India and will also skill the human resources globally.
While explaining one’s attitude towards entrepreneurship Dr Kalam emphasised upon the moral conduct of the students and said, “They should know how to calculate risks but with righteousness. Moral leadership requires capability and disposition to do right things. In all schools and colleges this is essential for capacity building. All schools should introduce a moral science class in their curriculum.”
Touching upon the issue of skill development, he delineated that the aim should be to create employment generators rather than employment seekers. The education system should highlight the ability to generate wealth. Expressing the education scenario in the country, he felt the need for capacity building to meet the demands of global environment. He also said that private education is a very creative ingredient and must be fostered.
While concluding his address he said that education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is the endless journey where there is no scope for hatred or disharmony. It is an asset to the universe. Education enhances the personality of a human being.
While concluding his address he said that education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is the endless journey where there is no scope for hatred or disharmony
Delighted with the three days conference and agreeing with the thoughts of Dr Kalam, Dr Taseer Al Nuaimi summaried the lesson and challenges that had been learnt in the conference. He emphasised on the flexible approach towards education where curricula is designed to be fluid rather than rigid so that transformed learning experience can be promoted. He also suggested that along with economic function of education, the social function of education should also be taken care of.
He concluded the evening by appreciating the potential of ICT in education as a tool to help education to reach its goal of meeting learners’ need and become an engine of social, economic growth. ICT based model should be carefully chosen as it cannot fix the bad education system alone. He supported the model, which is pedagogical in nature not the technological that can be identified by taking time for proper evaluation before adoption.
