Nagaland and Assam Governor, P.B. Acharya on Wednesday stressed on the need to promote skills in schools in order to push the society forward. Inaugurating the Vidya Bharti Infants’ Digital Home, an initiative of Janjati Shiksha Samiti (JSS) Nagaland, at Kevijau colony, Dimapur, Acharya expressed pain to note that despite the presence of universities, colleges and schools in Nagaland, there were several Naga youth who are unemployed or unemployable.
“About 85% are conventional degree courses in Nagaland, and this degree in itself does not ensure employability, but we need to match these degrees with appropriate skilling opportunities”, he said.
He felt that in order to identify the resources at hand and to match the supply and demand, a dialogue with educational institutions was needed. This way, he said it would prepare (the) graduates with skills and enable employability to youths.
Also speaking on the occasion, parliamentary secretary for Labour & Employment (including Skill Development), Mmhonlumo Kikon described the Vidya Bharti Digital Home as an exciting and wonderful initiative. He said the Vidya Bharti, reportedly the first of its kind, would be able to bridge the digital divide in Nagaland.
In line with Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital India, Kikon said such a “unique initiative” beginning at the pre-school level may even be beyond the PM’s vision on a Digital India. Kikon assured to support the initiative, to reach the villages and districts of Nagaland.
Meanwhile, the annual academic calendar and the annual magazine 2016 of JSS were released during the inaugural function.
Organizing secretary, Pankaj Sinha said that the building of the VB Infants’ Digital Home was dedicated to inspirational Nagas like late Capt. N. Kenguruse and Dr. T. Ao to name a few, to connect them with education and also develop “constructive educational concepts”.
VB Infants’ Digital Home, is a unique educational project where, children of 3, 4 and 5 years would learn reading, writing and arithmetic etc. through means such as the kids-cum-general laptop without school bags, books and note books. Basic foundation course on computer knowledge would be imparted.