Kohima : One of the panelists of the ongoing eNaga Summit 2016, Atreyee Borooah, from the Guwahati-based Web.com, on Tuesday suggested the need for a change in the educational curriculum of the country.
Speaking about a topic about the possibility of skill development and business process outsourcing being the answer to solving unemployment, Borooah pointed out that the current school curriculum was more theoretical than pragmatic.
“Only 35 % of our curriculum is practical. The rest are theory,” she said maintaining that there was a big gap between what one learns and what the industry actually demands. She reasoned that unemployment crops up because students have mere theoretical knowledge but not practical skills. Students do not fit in the demand sector of the corporate and industry, she reminded. “Skill and knowledge are the two driving force of any economy. Our country India, with a young population (65% below 35 years), needs to develop the younger generation with skill-based knowledge so as to catch up with the rest of the world,” she remarked.
Also, reiterating the big disconnection between demand and supply, she called upon the educational institutes to take the lead in imparting skills to school children from an early age. “Learning the skills when you are studying will make your work a lot easier,” she explained. She also pointed to the lack of innovation amongst students in general. “Innovation should be inculcated to young people when they are learning on skills,” she said.
Stating that the northeast region was geographically isolated from the rest of the country, Borooah, who attended the first eNaga Summit last year also as a panelist, said information technology was the solution to taking the region ahead.
Another panelist on the same topic, Rozelle Mero, the managing director of People Channel, Nagaland, stressed on good communication skills, which she said, was the need of the hour. Observing that majority of the Nagas have good English speaking skills, she, however regretted that the level of communication skills among the younger generation had gone down drastically. Mero has advised students to not ignore writing and also to inculcate the habit of writing.
The second edition of eNaga Summit commenced on November 28 at the IG Stadium in Kohima and culminated this evening. The summit, organized by the state’s department of Information Technology and Communication, was conducted under the theme “Towards making the state of Nagaland the next IT hub in Southeast Asia.”
On the opening day’s panel discussions, executive editor of Eastern Mirror, K Wapong Longkumer spoke on the “role of the media as an enabler”. Acknowledging that the media, newspapers in the case of Nagaland, has a “big role to play” in IT awareness, Longkumer invited the state’s government to collaborate with the Eastern Mirror toward creating IT awareness in the state.
Also, understanding the potential of the internet, he said Eastern Mirror had been targeting the youth through the social media. The government should also employ social media platforms in order to connect with a growing young Naga audience, he suggested.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
