The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that education must build character and promote good conduct adding that education which does not mould character is absolutely worthless. He was addressing the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Pedanandipadu College of Arts & Sciences, in Pedanandipadu village of Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh today. The judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice L. Nageswara Rao and the Minister for Health and Medical Education, Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Kamineni Sreenivas and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.The Vice President said that by education, he meant an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body, mind and spirit. Character is extremely important for an individual to chart out the right path, he said quoting Mahatma Gandhi. He further said that it is important for educational institutions to reorient the methods of teaching to impart new skills in accordance with the demands of a globalized, knowledge-driven economy. Updating knowledge and adapting to a rapidly changing work environment is the need of the hour, he added.
The Vice President said that education is meant not only to get employment, but the purpose of education is to enlighten, empower and make an individual to think innovatively. The vision of higher education must be to realize the country's human resource potential to its fullest with equity and inclusion, he added.The Vice President said that India is blessed with a vast human resources pool comprising talent and intelligence and those qualities have to be fully tapped to make students acquire knowledge and face contemporary challenges. He further said that the Governments to ensure that mother tongue is taught as a subject in schools if not as a medium of instruction. He appealed all the students to be proficient in their mother tongues first before learning other languages, including English. You will be able to articulate and communicate your views with greater clarity in your mother tongue than in other languages, he added.