Tamil Nadu governor Rajendra Arlekar on Sunday, backing the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, stressed the need for research-oriented education, multidisciplinary learning and critical thinking to prepare youth for future challenges, and questioned students whether they aspired to be job creators or merely job seekers.
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Stressing that a multi-disciplinary education system allows a student to learn many subjects, he explained, “(With implementation of National Education Policy) even if I am studying engineering, I can study art or commerce or music because I have talent and have some eagerness to understand other subjects also.”
Encouraging students to take up research, he said, “We were just imparting education written in the text books, and we were just happy to write exams based on the text books.”
“Research is necessary and every educational institution must have a research programme. Otherwise, students will not be able to develop their skill and talent. Whatever is given to us, we will be learning it by-heart and telling it to someone else and passing it to the next generation—that’s all.” he said.
Underlining that India has had a ‘big legacy’ pertaining to the education system, he said, “Let us go for a traditional education system along with the latest trends in technology. Let us blend it together, let us bring it together.”
He further said, “The traditional education system and the latest digital technology can be blended together and that education can be passed down to our next generation.”
“Can we not impart education that will make ‘job creators’ instead of job seekers? Our education system must aim at creating job givers. To create job givers, your education system must have an incubation centre and an entrepreneurship development cell,” he said.
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Delivering the 38th graduation day address at the Coimbatore-based RVS Group of Institutions, Arlekar said, “We always have to think what education we impart to the students. You must have heard of the National Education Policy 2020, which was adopted by our country in 2020.”
“The purpose of the NEP must be understood: it is not just an exercise done after the formation of a committee that results in something different. No. We have seen how education is imparted and passed down to the next generation.” he said.
Recalling that India should have implemented its own education system soon after attaining Independence, Arlekar said, “In 1947, we could have done this, but we failed to do it.”
Clarifying that he was not blaming anybody for it, the Governor said, “Our leadership at that time should have thought of it. As soon as we got independence, we could have had a different type of education system, but instead, we thought let us do what the Britishers have given to us.”
“And that colonial thought was the educational thought and that colonial process was our education that day and even to some extent today.” he recalled.
Noting that the National Educational Policy was headed by the late great scientist Kasturi Rangan who was the chairman of the Commission behind NEP, Arlekar said, “The Commission sat together for more than 2 years and they thought something has to be done, so that our education system will not create servants or slaves. We wanted to have masters in education, and in every field of our life. That was the aim of the National Education Policy 2020 and that should have been done earlier.”
Ridiculing the existing education system as nothing but a ‘memory test’, the Governor said, “If you remember, at the time of taking an examination, you are good at securing marks, you are good at exams. Your knowledge does not matter but all your memory matters. It is a memory test.”
