New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday, September 29, emphasised the importance of character building over literacy and called for ‘wholesome’ education in the country.
He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of “Conference on Academic Leadership on Education for Resurgence” organised by the HRD Ministry.
“Knowledge and education are not restricted to books. The purpose of education is to enable balanced growth of every dimension of a human being, which is not possible without innovation,” Modi said.
“Ambedkar, Deen Dayal Upadhya and Ram Manohar Lohiya always emphasized on character-building over literacy. Swami Vivekananda stressed on wholesome education that makes us a human,” he added.
The prime minister asserted that without innovation life would become a burden.
PM Modi, addressing various representatives of universities in the Vigyan Bhavan said, “When I’m inivited to inaugurate any programme in the universities or for the convocation, I personally inform the administration of the university to invite atleast 50 students (including primary and higher primary) from the schools of backward villages and rural areas. Economically backward students are my preference.”
Adding to this he said, “They are my chief guests. If they are invited only, I make a point to come.”
Explaining the reason for this he said, “The main reason and purpose of doing so is to seed a sense of enthusiasm and dream in the minds of the children, to see onself on the same platform achieving quality and fruitful education”
“Innovation is very important because without it, life seems like a burden. In our ancient universities like Takshshila, Nalanda and Vikramashila, innovation was given emphasis along with knowledge.
“I insist that students should give knowledge in classrooms of college, university but they also add them to the aspirations of the country,” he said.
PM Modi also said, “The government is focusing to invest in the field of education. To improve the infrastructure of education, RISE (Rivitalisation of Infrastructure Systems) has been introduced in education programmes and we aim to spend Rs 1 lakh crore by 2022”.
The conference is being attended by vice chancellors and directors of over 350 higher education institutions.
Courtesy: Press Trust of India
