Kalam asks people to get prepared to meet challenges

Kolkata, May 17 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today said the essence of education lay in the pursuit of truth and the people should be well-prepared to face the challenges to make the country a stronger and developed nation.

He urged the academic community to work towards the uplift of the quality life of the one billion population.

Addressing teachers and students of the National Council of Education here at Jadavpur University, Dr Kalam said, ''Inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership are the five capacities required to be built through the education process.'' If these capacities were developed among the students, the country would be able to produce self-directed, self-controlled and lifelong learners, who could respect the authority as well as question them in an appropriate manner.

''These are the leaders, who will work together as a self-organising network and transform any nation into a developed one in a time-bound manner,'' Dr Kalam said.

He called for a total transformation of the primary education system, and said, '' The main concern in our primary education is the unacceptable level of drop-outs in Class fifth, eighth and tenth levels.'' Sharing a few instances where efforts had been made to combat this high rate of drop-outs in the primary education level, he said, ''I have seen the accelerated learning programme using computers in the Karnataka government schools in association with Azim Premji Foundation to reduce the drop-outs. '' ''Akshaya Computer Literacy Programme in Kerala has also been successful in making at least one member in each family computer literate in whole of Malapuram district,'' the President said and underscored the need for introducing moral science classes to elevate young minds.

''Real education enhanced the dignity of a human being and increased his or her self-respect. If only the real sense of education could be realised by each individual, and carried forward in every field of human activity, the world would be a better place to live in,'' he added.

Dr Kalam suggested that a national policy for creating a global human development cadre for the country could be evolved through a national team by drawing experts from different Ministries.

''The National Council of Education, Bengal, and other national councils of education can give inputs to the national team.

Evolution of such a policy in a time-bound manner will generate quality, knowledge and skill, '' he said.

UNI