Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Dec 27: "Our universities have turned into centres which generate degrees. They are not driven by vision for a bright future for their students. In the present context, youth need education that lays stress on skill development. Towards achieving this objective, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has been giving importance to opening of more and more skill development centres. Educational institutions also need to pay more attention to this aspect," said Nagaland governor P B Acharya.
Acharya was addressing students from north east states of the country at SDM college in the city on Monday December 26.
"North eastern states are rich, but the people there have remained economically backward. Educational institutions have not yet grown to the expected level there. As a result, students from these states, where mostly tribal people live, are forced to move to various parts of the country in pursuit of higher education. Thousands of such students are also in coastal Karnataka. All of you are Indian citizens, and you need not consider yourself to be different from the people here. Being Indian citizens, you have the liberty and right to go anywhere you want and get education you need. Locals will also treat you like their own," he said with a voice of assurance.
Acharya said that the Prime Minister is enthusiastically engaged in bringing creative transformation in the country, and predicted that this is the opportune time to achieve all-round development. "After a gap of 12 years, Prime Minister of the country, Modi, visited north eastern states. He does not want any of the regions to lag behind in development. Towards this end, he has announced various initiatives and schemes like Jan Dhan and insurance for the common people. Being students from north east, you should encourage poor people from your native places to get involved with such excellent schemes," he advised.
The Nagaland governor noted that north eastern states witness large scale child trafficking, abduction and other criminal activities. He said social evils like HIV has been widely prevalent there, and felt that lack of education is the root cause for these things. He asked the youth to contemplate and conduct research on these aspects and work to find a lasting solution to these problems.
Nitte University vice chancellor, Dr S Ramananda Shetty, SDM college of business administration director, Dr Devaraj, principal, Prof Aruna Kamath, Dr M S Moodithaya of Nitte University, and Vivek Alva of Alva's Education Foundation, took part in the programme.