GAUHATI UNIVERSITY- IDEA 2008

Gauhati University,14 Nov.2008
IDEA 2008-OPEN UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE
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The occasion is the diamond jubilee year of Gauhati University-the oldest and the only premier university in the NE region and the UNESCO,IGNOU,KKH,IDOL-Gauhati Universty-sponsored conference attended by delegates from India and abroad has kicked off today.

In the inaugural session, Planning Commission member- Prof.B. Mungekar spoke about the need for India to catch up with China in the near future, totally revolutionising the mindset of Indians, give importance to school level education, converging the open universities with the conventional universities.As he suggested, 65 % of Indian university graduates are unemployable,the education policy of lord Macaulay had not changed even to-day, the teachers from school level to the unversity level are in need of orientation or more education.The teaching and learning process is bad and it affects the development of the country. India has to literally implement the policies including those relating to the SC,ST,women, minorities-muslims. Inspite of networking and co-ordination ven UGC and ICT file cases against each other.In his discourse as the chief guest,he cited Hegel,Marx and Lenin. Sections of the bourgeois academics with proletarian background, probably would consider as a paradigm shift from their damaging, retrograde and backward mind-set.Mungrekar reminded every one that the last drop of oil used in the seminar or the last rupee we use are being tapped from the porest of the poor whose children donot go to school.In India, only 5 % of the employed persons get certification whereas, 85% get certification in South Korea.

Keynote speaker Prof.VNR.Pillai also emphasized the need for imparting universal primary education.

Endnote from my desk- education in the NE region is in poor shape and illiteracy is very high.Back to Manipur, several -tens of thousands of school dropouts are not taken care of either by the state or by the NGOs, which pontificate about rhetorically, world class university in Manipur, quality education whereas thousands do not have even proper school education. Nearly all the private colleges become defunct, since there are very few students in colleges of Manipur.Government and NGOs are responsible for this plight.No one made an inquiry about the large scale exile of college students from private colleges.The future is bleak and knowledge-based economy may not emerge in the state and the region.