HRD minister interacts with students

BY A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, Sept 20: The Union HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar held an interactive session with the students before the IIM Chairpersons and Directors meet held at IIM Shillong on Tuesday.

While highlighting the diversity prevalent in the batch, Javadekar emphasized on how learning in such institutes of tiol excellence occur not just in the class but also outside through peer learning.

The minister spoke at length about the importance of teaching as a profession and stressed upon 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 the Late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Javadekar encouraged the students to look at taking up teaching as a career option and give back to their alma mater.

The Union Minister also highlighted the lack of top quality research which is often considered a key reason why IIMs have lagged behind in intertiol rankings.

In his opinion IIMs need to pay due attention to carrying out serious research and innovation in order to upgrade their status and create substantial learning.

He paid homage to Dr Kalam as one of the greatest teachers.

Javadekar ended the session with a call to action to all the students, “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 passiote teachers can lead us from the front. This transformation will be the greatest tribute to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam”.