Gandhinagar, 4 August 2012

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today called for qualitative improvement at all level of education befitting the talent and zeal of the youth in this age of knowledge in the 21st Century.

Addressing the students and teachers of Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) School in Chennai on the occasion of their 28th annual function through videoconferencing from his residence here, he said the need is for all round development of the youth. Youth will comprise 70 per cent of the population by 2025.

He said the government has given a mantra of ‘SKILL + WILL + ZEAL = WIN’. This is part of yearlong programme to celebrate Swami Vivekanad’s sesquicentennial anniversary.

Mr. Modi said that formal education is no more found relevant. The youth have to be trained for specialized jobs, research and entrepreneurship, make them physically fit through yoga, pranayam and games, and at the same time keep them abreast about patriotism, spiritualism, culture, literature, and civic sense.

Elaborating the steps taken for qualitative change in education at different levels in Gujarat, Mr. Modi said the number of universities increased from 11 to 42, the number of seats in engineering colleges and management institutes increased from 22,000 to 125,000, girls enrollment in schools reached 100 per cent and rate among girls reduced to 2.09 per cent over the last ten years. New specialized universities have been set up for teachers, children, Rakshashakti, Sanskrit, Petroleum, Law and Forensic Sciences.

He said that Gujarat is one state that has decided to provide distance education through a 36 megahertz transponder on Edusat, English language speaking course through ‘SCOPE’ and skill development course I-Create.

The DAV School in Chennai was founded by senior RSS swayamsevak Shri Varadarajan on the ideals of Dayanand Saraswati and Swami Vivekanand. About 6,500 students are studying in the school now. Ramakrishna Mission’s head in Chennai Shri Gautamanandji christened the new hall in memory of Dayanand Saraswati in the school premises.