The Hindu Business Line : `Educational bodies should respond to society's needs'

THE Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Prof V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, has urged educational and training institutions to respond effectively to the changing needs of society.

Delivering the T.A. Pai Memorial Endowment Lecture on `Education, entrepreneurship and enterprise education' at Mangalore University on Saturday, he said that they should adapt to a rapidly shifting higher education landscape and adopt more flexible modes of organisation and operation.

"Our higher education institutions need to produce the kind of professional that the labour market can absorb," he said.

According to Prof Pillai, the major objective of enterprise education is to develop enterprising people and to inculcate an attitude of self-reliance using appropriate learning processes.

Enterprise education programmes should be promoted with the objective of creating more entrepreneurial individuals.

Higher education institutions should take this perspective into consideration while restructuring the curriculum and designing new job-oriented courses, he said.

The need of the hour is to provide enterprise education and to create a facilitative ambience and mechanism for entrepreneurship.

Stating that the lacunas in the existing educational system do not promote entrepreneurial thinking, creativity or innovation, he said, "Focussed attempts are necessary to encourage entrepreneurial learning in our higher education institutions."

To promote entrepreneurship among students, educational institutions are creating entrepreneur development cells in colleges.

He said systematic and collective efforts from sectors such as education, industry, labour, agriculture and rural development are necessary to achieve results in entrepreneurship development.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page