NEW DELHI: As the University of Delhi entered the 100th year of its formation, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu called for taking higher education to the rural areas and making it more inclusive and equitable. He was speaking at the university’s centenary celebration held at its North Campus on Sunday.
Stressing on sustainable global future, the Vice-President said this dimension of equitable access to education for the rural youth was critical as education plays a key role in human development and creating a prosperous future.
Naidu emphasised that universities must come out with innovative and out of box ideas to address the pressing problems of society. The ultimate aim of research should be to make people’s lives comfortable and happier, he added.
Naidu also talked about the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) and described it as a far-sighted document which is set to revolutionise the educational landscape of the country. He said that its emphasis on imparting education in one’s mother tongue – when implemented in schools, colleges and universities – will prove to be a game-changer.
Calling for providing basic education in a child’s mother tongue, Naidu ssaid the local language must be the main mode of communication in the administration and courts. “Every gazette notification and government order should be in the local or native language so that the common man understands it,” he said.
The Vice-President said those who wanted to go abroad for studies should learn and come back to promote research in India. “The goal of research should be to reform, perform and transform so that people’s lives can be comfortable and happy,” he said.
He also called upon the DU to become India’s world leader in future. “We have to become ‘vishwaguru’ , but it is not our aim to capture someone and neither have we ever done so in the past. Also, we have to become the centre of knowledge and be among the top 10 institutions of the world,” the Vice-President said.