Reinvent the Higher Education System: Venkaiah Naidu

While addressing the 16th convocation of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Venkaiah Naidu emphasises that knowledge should be the driving force of the Indian economy. He also said that knowledge alone will ensure that the quality of life, as well as the living condition of Indians. According to him, India needs to decolonise the education system to become a global competitor.

At the convocation ceremony, Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu awarded the students with 8 PhDs, 6 M.Phil degrees as well as 29 M.Sc degrees. He says that there needs to be a reformation in the education system by ‘moving away from the colonial mindset’. He also stated that the institutions for higher education will achieve this only by teaching history in an ‘objective manner’.

He emphasises that education is not a tool for getting jobs alone. Education should be something that gives the individual the ability to use the knowledge to ‘sift the wheat from the chaff’, he said. He also states that everyone has the right to receive quality knowledge so as to prevent any kind of discrimination and ensure inclusive growth.

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In the words of Venkaiah Naidu, it is now time for India to become the hub for knowledge which will happen only when universities of India recreate themselves to be ‘hubs of vibrant intellectual pursuit’.

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Naidu also states that agriculture is only a fifth of the entire GDP of the country, almost half of the labour workforce of the country is employed in the various field of agriculture. He also said that the country needs to openly bring in a number of changes to the structure of agriculture. Introducing agro-processing or on-farm value addition and making greater innovative arrangements in the field of agriculture. This will result in helping the farmers to bargain for a better price for their products in the market. Hence making the agriculture sector a profitable one.