Need to skill India's young population: President

There is a need to skill the young population so that they are ready to take up the right jobs and contribute towards the India's growth, President Pranab Mukherjee said here today.
School students and young minds should imbue themselves with a spirit of innovation and research in order to expand their horizons, he said at a function here, adding that education implies not just collection but assimilation of information to transform it into knowledge.
"To reap the demographic dividend, the young population has to be skilled appropriately, so that the youth are ready to take up right jobs and contribute to the growth of the nation," Mukherjee said.

The President, however, rued that although India has several reputed educational institutions, not one of them had found a place in the global list of top 200 institutions.
"This is a gap which needs to be filled. If we begin by strengthening school education itself, we can fulfil this gap," he said at the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebrations of Rameswar High School here in Khordha district.
Former governor and a past chief minister of Odisha, the late Janaki Ballav Patnaik, had founded the school.

Exhorting young minds to expand their horizons, he said it was "necessary if we want to occupy our rightful place in the comity of nations".

Saying that he was missing the presence of the Patnaik, Mukherjee fondly recalled how the former had asked him to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the school.
Throughout his life, Patnaik continued his literary activities in addition to his political activities, Mukherjee said. "Janaki Babu himself was a product of one of the schools here," he added.
The President said he was told that it was because of Rameswar high school that education could be imparted to girls in the area, including those from the minority community.
The emphasis on creating an environment of greenery in the school reminded him of ancient India's 'Tapovan' where ancient gurus taught in the midst of nature, the President said.

The golden jubilee celebration is a befitting tribute to Patnaik and his role in transforming the school, he said.
Quoting Swami Vivekananda, Mukherjee added, "Education is not the amount of information that we put into the brain... We must have life-building, man-making, character-making and assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library."
Odisha Governor SC Jamir and other dignitaries were present at the function.