Lack of awareness should not lead to loss of opportunity — KT Sukhalu

Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 10 (EMN): Advisor for School Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) KT Sukhalu on Tuesday stated that students should be able to have access to proper information and knowledge about different educational institutions across the country, as many get admitted into unrecognised institutions outside the state.

He said that lack of awareness should not lead to the loss of opportunity for students, and commended IDAN for initiating the first-ever Edu-Connect conclave.

Sukhalu was speaking at the first Nagaland Edu-Connect Conclave on the theme ‘investment for the future’ at Capital Convention Centre in Kohima.

The two-day conclave is specifically designed to help students with educational opportunities, quality institutions, scholarships, and facilities for availing education loans, career guidance, and so on. It is being organised by the Investment Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) in association with the Northeast Education Council (NEEC).

“It is important that proper information, knowledge about the educational institutions of choice, and customised information access to a wide array of educational institutions from across India at a single platform to explore and exercise options is made available to our students”, he remarked.

‘Edu Connect is a great opportunity to interact and to know the wider prospect that is available. It is a step towards facilitating an educational interface between top colleges, institutes, and universities in India and the students of Nagaland. Nagas are very talented and can catch up with others easily. But children are not able to discover their own potential. Do not think that Nagaland is your only playground, but India and the world are there if you really want to pursue your career’, he told the students.

He expressed hope that the event will serve as an enabling springboard for potential investment in the state in the education sector.

“Such investment will not only bring quality education to our doorstep but will be mutually beneficial for both the investor and the student community as well as the state as a whole,” he said.

Advisor for Technical Education and Election, Medo Yhokha, said that in the absence of any big or medium industries, a sector which usually absorbs a large percentage of the workforce and employment, Nagaland today had a very high percentage of educated un-employees, with a staggering figure of 25.7 % as per the statistics of Union Ministry of Labour and Employment for the year 2019-2020, which is the highest in Northeast and second all over India after Lakshadweep, which has 31.6 %.

“Hence, the state is dependent heavily on funds from the Government of India, which eats up almost 60 % of the financial sources that come to the state from Delhi. It is against the backdrop to provide and to create a system that can handhold and facilitate the society in general and the younger generation in particular, on advancement and progression of human resources, Nagaland government under the initiative of IDAN has come out with the concept.

“The core mission and target vision of this Edu Connect is to provide a platform and to rope in the participation of any individual firms or companies or corporations desiring to invest in the education sector of the state. For this, IDAN has been made the nodal department which will work to facilitate all queries and processes for the successful implementation of this target mission”, he said.

Presenting the figures of students appearing as well as passing class 10 and class 12 each year, he said there is a huge opportunity for investors. They can set up schools, colleges, educational trusts, technical colleges, etc in Nagaland, which will definitely be a win-win situation for all parties involved.

“Investment and investors in the educational sector of the state will therefore be a big help to the state as well as the people, as many parents find it impossible to send their children to study outside the state due to financial constraints. It will also help those deserving students from underprivileged sections of society to come on par with their counterparts from affluent society,” Yhokha added.

Chief Executive Officer IDAN Alemtemshi Jamir observed that ‘children are our greatest investments and education occupies the most important and valuable deposit’. He said that India needs to shift out of its education system born out of colonial imperatives that cater basically to white-collar jobs.

“Although education is not a mandate of IDAN when NEEC came up with a proposal for such a conclave, the IDAN readily agreed to host the Edu-connect in the hope it will open up the eyes of the children to available opportunities around the country along with inviting potential investors into Nagaland”, he said.

He further informed that a similar show is being conducted in Dimapur. From next year, the event will be passed on to the line department like Higher Education and Technical Education

Professor KRS Sambasiva Rao, Vice-Chancellor of Mizoram University, suggested quality benchmark facilities, and infrastructure for investors to invest in the state.

“It should have a globalised environment and not a localised one,” he said.

He also pointed out that unless there are some tax benefits for investors, they would not want to invest in Nagaland and therefore called for a tax system to be in place.

Vice-Chancellor of North East Christian University, Dr. Darlando Khathing, also addressed the inaugural session.

The two-day conclave includes technical sessions on a range of topics. Colleges, institutes, and universities from across India have set up stalls at the venue for participating students to explore and get simplified access to information about courses offered, facilities available, fee structure, and admission procedure, educational loan and scholarships of  various colleges, institutes, and universities.