Javadekar asks IIM-S students to take up teaching
SHILLONG: Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has asked IIM students of Shillong to take up teaching as career, besides improving research in all the IIMs in the country.
The minister held an interactive session with students at IIM Shillong on Tuesday before meeting the chairpersons and directors of all IIMs.
Javadekar underlined the importance of teaching as a profession and stressed on the need for good quality teachers required to enrich 270 million students throughout the country with quality education.
Appreciating the ‘Nurturing Minds’ initiative of the students of IIM Shillong to teach primary school students every weekend as a tribute to late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Javadekar encouraged them to look at teaching as a career option and give back to their alma mater.
Javadekar also highlighted the lack of top-quality research which is often considered a key reason why IIMs have lagged behind in international rankings.
In his opinion, IIMs need to pay due attention to carrying out serious research and innovation to upgrade their status and create substantial learning.
While highlighting the diversity prevalent in the batch, he emphasised on how learning in such premier institutes occurs not just in the class but also outside through peer learning.
The minister also paid homage to Kalam as one of the greatest teachers and ended the session by saying, “India’s young population can offer a demographic dividend only if we can skill and educate them well enough; India’s transformation can happen only when passionate teachers can lead us from the front. This transformation will be the greatest tribute to Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.”
Earlier, the minister soon after his arrival in Shillong told the media persons that the Centre was contemplating to increase fund flow to schools and colleges to augment the quality of education.
Stating that more fund will be released to colleges and schools, the minister said, “Emphasis will be given to quality education at the primary as well as middle level”
In the context of mushrooming of private universities, it has become more challenging for the Centre to keep a track on the quality education.
However, the minister assured the Centre was committed to see that the quality of education is improved.
Meanwhile, though there is criticism from some quarters over ‘saffronisation of education”, as there is a move to rewrite NCERT history textbooks, the minister made it clear that the Centre had not changed any bit of history.
“Not a single bit of history will be changed,” he asserted.