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PB Acharya at the convocation of the ICFAI University in Dimapur on Thursday, November 23.[/caption]
Dimapur, November 23: Education is empowerment but there is great hunger among the youths of Nagaland for education. Nagaland is a state where a population of about 20 lakh continue to struggle for economic emancipation. Every year, thousands of youths are compelled to go outside the state seeking education, careers and jobs.
In a way, the leaders of the state are criminals in the eyes of the public for creating unemployed educated youths in the first place.
This honest statement was stated by Nagaland Governor PB Acharya during a convocation programme of the ICFAI University of Nagaland on Wednesday, November 23, at the university in Dimapur.
Graduates should not be job-seekers and achievers should be givers, Acharya asserted to the gathering of graduating students and academicians of the institution. The students’ ability to change themselves and their capability to change others and in their ability to transform the society is crucial.
These factors can make for the survivability and sustainability of an institution, the governor said.
Also, advocating to the gathering the need to maintain their respective culture and language, Acharya remarked that ‘we pursue foreign language while condemning our own mother tongue forgetting that our culture is dying’.
Currently, Acharya said, there is hardly any constructive and positive dialogue between trade, industry, commerce and education; even the demand and supply sectors do not correspond. ‘Our conventional degrees have made us neither employable nor entrepreneurs,’ he said.
‘No outsider can improve or make Nagaland and it is in our hands to develop the state. Things meant for the public are siphoned off,’ Acharya lamented.
Also, the governor lamented in his speech that Yoga ‘has been misinterpreted’ in Nagaland. Yoga is being associated with Hinduism. It has nothing to do with religion, he claimed.
“Unless we change our mindset that empowerment is not for ourselves but for the society, there will be no change” the governor said to the graduating students.
Acharya also said that the ‘country’s integration’ was being threatened in the northeast. He called for strengthening emotional integration with the people of the northeast region and to ensure equality in development. That way, he said, the fruits of independence would reach the people ‘equitably to all places in the country.’
Deo Nukhu, the state’s parliamentary secretary for Higher & Technical Education addressed the gathering. He was attending the event as the guest of honour.
In his speech, Nukhu reminded the students that securing educational qualifications or degrees was not enough unless they were able to prove worthy of their ‘own degree in their work performance as they step out of their colleges and universities.’
“Nagaland has only one central university and we are in need of more quality private universities in the state and ICFAI University has been growing with introduction of more locally popular programs rendering quality higher education to the local youth right at their doorstep obviating their need to travel to far off places for education,” the legislator said. Through this, the aim of the Nagaland government in promoting private universities in the state has been realised, Nukhu remarked.
Taking opportunity from the occasion, Nukhu appealed to the sponsoring society to actively consider extending the current infrastructure to cater to the growing needs of the university. He urged upon the ICFAI to build a good library. The politician also called upon the students’ community to cultivate the habit of reading ‘in the library.’
Also, YK Bhushan, the chancellor of ICFAI University in Nagaland addressed the gathering. Nagaland is a dynamic developing state in the northeast region, he said. It is now looking at the MSMEs for development, he explained. He appreciated the role that intellectual development and ‘employability’ play in a community’s progress.
‘The youths now have an exciting time as they are in an era of start-ups spurred by Information Technology and the government of India with new opportunities in employment and entrepreneurship. Innovate or be left behind or left out,’ the chancellor said.
YK Bhushan has urged the students to ‘dare to dream’ which he said would entail bold thinking and high aspiration from them.