Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President, today asked schools across the nation to foster a spirit of curiosity, innovation, and excellence among students to prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century.
Taking a futuristic approach to education and ditching rote learning, Shri Naidu said “the best skill schools can teach students today is adaptability.”. Train students to think quickly on their feet, to be agile, and to innovate with cutting-edge technology, he said.
Vice President Biden was inaugurating the Vellore International School, part of the VIT Group. He stressed the importance of schooling during a child’s formative years and expressed concern about kids spending most of their time in the classroom under the conventional education system. Throughout the article, he encouraged students to “experience the world outside – spend time in nature, interact with people from all walks of life, and learn different crafts and trades”.
Shri Naidu said classroom learning should be supplemented with field experiences, social awareness programs, and community service projects, as well as inculcating the spirit of service in students from a young age.
He recalled how the ancient Gurukul system in India focused on the holistic development of a child, with the teacher spending time with them. The emphasis was on character building and correct assessment. Observing that schools should borrow the best parts of ‘guru shishya parampara,’ Shri Naidu also called on them to stop artificially segregating curricular and extracurricular activities and to promote multidisciplinary in the classroom.
According to the Vice President, schools should focus on providing a value-based, holistic education that brings out students’ “greatest potential and highest virtues”. “Education without values is no education at all.”.
Shri Naidu said it’s important to encourage students to speak freely in their mother tongue in their social environment. Only when we can speak our mother tongue freely and proudly can we truly appreciate our culture.
Government approved the initiative of setting up of 100 new Sainik Schools
He said proficiency in other languages, in addition to one’s mother tongue, helps build cultural bridges and opens doors to new worlds. In saying that there should be “no imposing or opposing of any language”, the Vice President said one should learn as many languages as possible, but mother tongue should come first.
Shri Naidu also appealed to schools to encourage students to be active for a balanced growth of children. Students should take up sports or exercise to stay healthy.