Inauguration of Festival of Education

Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak has said that education plays key role in personal and social development of any human being. It enables one acquire knowledge and skills which would then defines one’s future. For proper development of any country it was must that every child, be it a boy or girl, be poor or rich, have urban background or rural, gets equal opportunities in exercising her right to education.

Sheikh Nahyan was addressing the inaugural session of the first of its kind Festival of Education in the country, on Saturday, at Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Centre, Jaipur, as a chief guest. Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje was also present during this. He said that education had potential of enabling the world end all economic inequalities and discriminations.

The Minister said that adopting to the scientific and technological changes was need of the hour and to ensure this our children should be offered the best quality education. He called upon the parents and entire society to join the governments in order to ensure quality education and overall development of the young next generation. He asked the teachers and educational authorities to adopt creativity and make efforts so that education was made accessible to every child even in the remote and interior areas.

Sheikh Nahyan thanked the CM for her visionary idea of arranging for this festival and said with the teachers and pupils of Rajasthan getting acquainted with novel ideas of providing education this would revolutionize the scenario of education. He said that only education could save a society from differences and establish multiethnic cultures. It would be the best idea for ensuring prevalence of peace, stability and prosperity in the world.

Addressing the gathering of educationists and researchers, teachers and parents on this occasion, Chief Minister Smt. Raje said that given the geographical and demographical circumstances of the state, providing quality education to the children here it was a big challenge. Accepting this challenge, her government brought big changes in the educational set-up and made it learning based.

The CM said that with the efforts thus made the talented students to get opportunities of higher studies in medical, engineering, law, management and other such disciplines. These subjects were basic to development of humanity, she added. She said that teachers were important for making of any nation and they should adopt themselves to the upcoming changes. For this, the government was improving their skills and capabilities by providing them training for new teaching methodologies and syllabi.

Smt. Raje said that realizing the fact that mere degrees were not enough for the youth to upsurge in life, the state government had focused on skill training along with basic education. Rajasthan was amongst the top state in providing skill education to its youth. Also, two new skill universities had been established here, she said. She invited the private sector establishments to invest for development of basic infrastructure in education.

Addressing the festival, Union HRD Minister Shri Prakash Javdekar said that the countries focusing on research and innovation excel in the world. Prosperity based on natural resourced had its own constraints of time and only innovations and adaptations could make it everlasting, he said.

Praising the state government’s efforts for making school education useful and relevant in Rajasthan, he said that these ideas were being followed by the other states. He added that improving in quality of education could ensure development of the country and in recent past the entire nation had discussed and debated to reduce the gap of an academic degree and a certificate of skill.

Member of UK’s House of Lords and Deputy Chair of British Council Baroness Usha Prasar commended CM Smt. Raje for her vision and said that with the steps she undertook, Rajasthan would soon be an education hub. She said that present and future generations needed skilling along with education and the same was being offered in Rajasthan.

During the inaugural function of the festival, the CM launched an education CSR portal Gyan Samkalp. She also gave prizes to the school students for their cultural performances during the function. Participants of the event and guests pledged for making efforts to ensure quality and equal opportunities of education to all.

On this occasion, Higher and Technical Education Minister Smt. Kiran Maheshwari, Minister of State for School Education Shri Vasudeo Devnani, Members of State Cabinet, MPs, MLAs, Chief Secretary Shri Ashok Jain, Founder of Gems Education Shri Sunny Varkey, Vice Chancellors of several universities, educationists, researchers, students and senior officers of the state government were also present.

Jaipur, 5 August 2017