Time has come for India to re-establish itself as a knowledge and innovation hub: Naidu

Commercialisation and poor governance are the root cause of the problems being faced by educational institutions in the country, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu Wednesday said and asserted that the time has come for India to re-establish itself as a knowledge and innovation hub.

Addressing the 32nd convocation of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Naidu said quality assurance is important for improving the higher education sector.

"For that (establishing India as a knowledge hub) to happen, we have to completely overhaul our higher education system to cater to the fast changing requirements of the 21st century in different sectors.

"Apart from remoulding the syllabi and pedagogy, the stress should be on learning-by-doing," he told the students.

The Vice President said, "The root cause of the problem in private and government-funded institutions is commercialisation and poor governance respectively.

"Higher education should transform an individual into a responsible human being with social, moral and ethical values embedded in him or her apart from making the person more productive," he stressed.

The quality assurance and accreditation mechanism should acknowledge the transformative role of education in a broader sense and facilitate in widening the horizons of the Indian higher education system, he added.

"Your learning does not end with the acquisition of an educational degree. Learning is an ongoing process and you need to upgrade knowledge on a daily basis to face a highly competitive world," he told the students.

As India is rapidly advancing towards a knowledge-based society, it should preserve its traditional knowledge base and integrate it with modern educational system of the country, he said.

The university awarded 200,000 degrees, diplomas, and certificates in the convocation to successful students in their respective programmes.

Gold medals were also awarded to over 70 meritorious students in the convocation.

Professor Nageshwar Rao, vice-chancellor of the varsity said, "The university is working dedicatedly to redesign the Bachelor Degree Programme, the flagship programme of the university, as per Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) mode as it provides IGNOU students the scope of mobility both within and outside the university."