Number of unemployed educated Nagas can cross 1.5 lakh by 2030, says entrepreneur from Nagaland

Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 11 (EMN): Founder of Entrepreneur Associates and Ashoka Fellow, Neichute Doulo on Wednesday said revolutionary wealth lies not in government jobs, but in problem solvers who create wealth in their own way.

Doulo was speaking on ‘Nagaland 2030: Vision forward’, on the occasion of ‘Changemakers’ Day’-celebrating Nagaland’s changemaker ambassador teachers, organised by Ashoka Innovators in collaboration with the Directorate of School Education in Kohima.

The 2030 vision is to help students become problem solvers and have ambitions beyond government jobs.

“Let them have ambitions; we wish to see billionaires coming out of your students,” he told a gathering of teachers participating in the event.

A social entrepreneur himself, Doulo said that in Nagaland, entrepreneurs are looked down upon because people think that government jobs are the only road to development, and therefore they look at the yardstick of government jobs as development.

The challenge for school teachers today is to “really redefine” the education system. There is nothing wrong to teach students to think out of the box and be problem solvers, he said, while asking teachers to start re-imagining things for Nagaland and schools to have ambitions.

Speaking further on the topic, he said the present system of education is destroying the future. “If we don’t encourage creative thinkers, we are going to miss the bus,” he said. 

“Government jobs are no longer the best job that young people can have,” he said as he challenged students to be ambitious.

‘If the same trend (of education without critical and analytical thinking) continues and people behave like now, it would leave more than 1, 50,000 educated Nagas unemployed by 2030, which is really frightening,’ he observed.

“A teacher’s role is to be able to build the society,” he said, and called upon them to mould students in such a way that they become problem solvers. ‘If that is not done then we have failed education in many ways’.

He further told teachers to try teaching students to make money without having them to depend on government jobs. ‘Opportunities are many and there is enough room for us to change our mindset if we ourselves are willing to explore’.

‘Creating critical and analytical thinking does not depend on the syllabus but on motivated teachers. If teachers fail to tell that a teacher’s job is noble and needs devotion, we will be failing to build our society,’ Doulo pointed out.

The social entrepreneur went on to say that he does not want students to be happy with INR 1 crore per annum salary but earn INR 1000 crore per annum by becoming entrepreneurs.

‘A lot of people give less importance to teachers and many see it as a form of job opportunity today. But, a teacher’s work is very important through which thousands of people can become change-makers in society,’ he said.

India is one of the biggest countries, and the school education system is different from other countries. In the country, students are taught what to think while in other areas, they are taught how to think, he said while citing a study conducted on the Indian education system.

With thousands of colleges and hundreds of universities across the country, ‘if we have not reached the league of 100 top universities in the world over the last 35 years, we are in a serious situation’, he observed.

Principal Director of School Education, Shanavas C urged teachers to take inputs from various programmes organised by the departments and make an impact on children.

He said that Nagaland does not get many opportunities as agencies and organisations from outside hardly come to the state, which in turn result in lack of opportunities for students and teachers alike.

 In this regard, the department had to take extra effort, he said.

‘Nagaland has been through tough times, be it security reasons, remoteness of the area, infrastructural developments etc. We failed to know what is happening outside the state. But, when the world is moving ahead, we should be moving too and at least try to have a beginning,’ he said.

‘Students from the state are not confident when it comes to Mathematics and Science. But, there are a lot of exposures a teacher can do to help the students and find solutions to problems. That can be achieved with a collective effort of all stakeholders,’ he said.

Talking about challenges in the education sector, he said that ensuring education for every child in every corner of the state is still a challenge. ‘But, we still have to give it a try for change to take place,’ he added.

The Changemaker Day was organised as part of the collaboration between Ashoka Innovators and the Nagaland State government to build a change-making ecosystem in the Nagaland School Education system. The collaboration seeks to advance a culture of change-making, innovation and problem solving among the students of Nagaland. It also aims to train a group of 100 teachers in the state to become Changemakers’ Ambassadors who will support students in their respective schools.

A young changemakers’ panel discussion featuring Radhika Joshi, founder of The Second Chance Project; Prajal Regmi, founder and CEO of Ripra Clothing; and Regina Chakrunuo, founder of Regina Designer Clothing was also conducted.