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| Governor J.J. Singh at the conference in Itanagar on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture |
Itanagar, Feb 18 : Arunachal Pradesh Governor Gen. (retd) J.J. Singh today said India should take a cue from China, which has taken giant leaps in the education sector, outshining other Asian and competing with developed European nations.
Singh was speaking as the chief guest at the Ninth Conference of Higher and Technical Education held at the Banquet Hall, a government auditorium where official functions are held.
The governor said despite the fact that India was fiercely competing with China in the defence sector, the country must not lag behind in education either.
“India is in a horse race with China in a bid to outwit its opponent in terms of modernising military structure but there is a greater need to bring develop the education sector on a par with China, which is marching ahead of us,” Singh said.
Though the 11th Five Year plan presents a comprehensive strategy for strengthening the education sector, in Arunachal Pradesh the efforts are far from satisfactory.
It is through universal literacy and knowledge-based agricultural and industrial development that the state must strive better its prospects, he said.
Only seven per cent population of the state has access to higher education against 10 per cent in the country.
“There is a need to produce efficient teachers to impart quality education in the state. We need to train teachers, what we call imparting training to trainers in army. Unless the teachers are adequately trained, they cannot produce good students,” he said.
Education minister Tatar Kipa said in addition to eight government colleges, four private colleges and two polytechnic institutes will come up soon.
The director of higher and technical education, Joram Begi, and the vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University, Prof. K.C. Beliappa, were also part of the two-day conference that will conclude tomorrow.