National Education Policy to propel India into future: Tamil Nadu Governor

COIMBATORE: Governor RN Ravi on Monday said India would have no future, if it continues to follow the colonial system of education.

Addressing the inaugural function of two-day Vice-Chancellors conference at Raj Bhavan in Udhagamandalam, Governor Ravi said India is at the cusp of transformation.

“The National Education Policy (NEP), brought out after a lot of churning by involving stakeholders from academia, society and thought leaders, is the future of our country. India is facing challenges faced by the world and they are hurting us in a major way,” he said.

Claiming that despite exploitation by colonial powers, India remained as the sixth largest economy at the time of Independence, Ravi said in the subsequent decades, the country was reduced to the 11th spot.

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“For a long time until colonisation, India was the largest economy in the world because of our innovative spirit, enterprising nature and our system was not of rote learning. Despite not having many gold mines, India had the largest gold reserve in the world because the world remained a market for our products like iron, chemicals, textiles and many other things. Our products were valued because of our competitiveness and were ahead of others. This spirit of innovation and research was dissimilated during colonial rule. Fortunately, with new initiatives coming, we have reached the fifth largest economy spot in the world. Hopefully, in the next few years, India will get to the third position,” he said.

Stating that India has lost a lot of time because of the education system bequeathed by colonial rulers, the Governor said, the countries which were far behind in development have managed to leave us far behind. India will have no future if it continues to follow the colonial system of education, he said.

On the significance of the conference, Ravi said the state universities were mostly working in isolation and were struggling with its problems until a few years ago.

“There was a strange lack of communication among these institutions. Hence, this conference was organised to exchange thoughts, deliberate on issues and learn from each other to prosper with a core thrust on excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said.

UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar and others spoke.