New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday while welcoming implementation of the National Education policy (NEP) in Jammu and Kashmir hoped that determined efforts will be made to make this paradise a hub of knowledge, innovation and learning.
President Kovind was addressing a conference in Srinagar through a video message on implementation of the NEP in J&K. The conference was attended by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, Vice-Chancellors of universities, principals of colleges in the UT as well as other stakeholders.
He said education is the biggest catalyst for change and the youth is the most potent agent of social transformation. He said that the NEP will prove to be a milestone in realizing India’s unprecedented demographic dividend.
HE said his “dream is to see Jammu and Kashmir emerge as a centre of knowledge, enterprise, innovation and skill development”.
Appreciating the scholarly pursuits of the region, the President said that determined efforts should be made to make this paradise a hub of knowledge, innovation and learning by implementing NEP in letter and spirit.
Taking inspiration from the captivating couplet, he said that these steps would make Jammu and Kashmir once again a “Firdaus on the earth, a bright jewel on the crown of Mother India” as it was referred to in the medieval age.
Talking about the rich heritage in the field of education inherited by Jammu and Kashmir, President Kovind said that “it has been a centre of literature and learning since time immemorial. Citing the examples of Kalhana’s Rajtarangini and Mahayana Buddhism, the tenets of which were popular in Kashmir, he opined that history of India’s cultural traditions would remain incomplete without taking them into consideration”.
He said “I have been meeting and interacting with school children from the region at Rashtrapati Bhavan every year. In my own experience, I can say it with conviction that Jammu and Kashmir is a reservoir of extremely intelligent, talented and innovative children”.
