President Ram Nath Kovind on February 5, 2018 stressed on the need of creative education and schooling system in the country to develop a culture of innovation and research.
“Without a strong, dynamic and creative education and schooling system, we cannot create a research and innovation culture,” the president said, adding “It is important to cultivate curiosity in our classrooms, and free science from the tyranny of jargon.”
While addressing the concluding session of a day-long Nobel Laureates seminar, the president said good researchers emerge in a system that values good teachers and good faculty.
“The linkage between research institutes and universities – and research and industry – is extremely important. These cannot exist in independent silos,” he said, adding, “It is also critical to link science to society.”
Earlier addressing the inaugural session of the seminar, the president said that keeping pace with the investment in science, India has invested in people through institutions of higher education.
“We have recently created several central universities; Indian Institutes of Technology; All India Institutes of Medical Sciences; and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research,” he said, adding, “These investments will create a huge pool of scientists, clinician researchers and technologists for a changing India.”
Saying that the schooling system in the country should be the best for these investments to bear fruits, he said this is a challenge but not impossible to accomplish it.
“For these investments to bear fruit, these institutions and also our schools must be as good as the best in the world,” he said, adding, “This is a challenge but together we can accomplish it.”
“Together, we can make innovation not just a passion for our scientific elite, but the lifeline of our schooling system,” he further said.