The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Women’s education should become the cardinal principle of Nai Talim and said education should empower the society to dispel gender stereotypes.Saying that education was a key element in the rural transformation that Gandhiji dreamt of, Shri Naidu wanted institutes like the National Council of Rural Education to take steps to enhance the quality education in rural areas. He opined that aspects such as bridging the rural-urban divide and the Gandhian ideal of Gram Swaraj should form part of the syllabus.Addressing the 1st National Conference of Educators for Nai Talim and Experiential Learning at the Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education, in Hyderabad today, the Vice President emphasized that the nation simply cannot realize its full potential if half of the population is not able to contribute meaningfully to economic development and are not given opportunities for personal fulfillment and career growth.The Vice President said that education must foster active citizenship in the world of today and prepare the young children to be forward looking pace setters in the world of tomorrow. He opined that the education system would lose relevance if it is not organically connected to a society’s present and its future. Quoting the former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the Vice President said that bridging the rural-urban divide was closely linked with the mission of overcoming poverty and inequity.
Shri Naidu said that driven by the need for education, health care and better income, the rural population was migrating to urban areas with a hope to get better livelihood opportunities. Concerned over the trend, he said such migrations often results in despair and contribute further to urban poverty and led to stress and societal turbulence. Commenting on present day disturbance of terrorism, the Vice President said that terrorism in any form should be eliminated.The Vice President opined that by creating urban amenities such as affordable healthcare, access to clean water, lending support to rural livelihoods, nurturing the unharnessed resources and potential would help in bridging such divide.Saying that the gender divide and rural-urban divide often coincide, Shri Naidu stressed that special attention must be paid to girls’ education, especially in rural areas. Basic education must be in mother tongue, he added.The Chairman, MGNCRE, Dr. W.G. Prasanna Kumar, the Chairman, TSCHE, Prof. Papi Reddy, the Vice Chancellors, the Heads of Departments from a number of Universities, and representatives of the State Councils for Education, Research and Training were present on the occasion.