Terrorism grim reminder of need for unified global response: Vice Prez Dhankhar

New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said the Pahalgam attack is a grim reminder that terrorism is a global menace to be addressed by humanity in unison.

Addressing the Inaugural Session of the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of State, Central and Private Universities of Tamil Nadu, Dhankhar expressed confidence that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the nation's rise would not be handicapped by any situation -- internal or external.

“We must take a resolve to always keep nation first, national interests cannot be intertwined with partisan interests, it has to be uppermost. This cannot be subservient to any interest -- political, personal or for a group,” he said.

Touching upon the transformative National Education Policy, the Vice President said: "After three decades, taking into consideration input from the widest spectrum of stakeholders, there was the evolution of the National Education Policy. This policy aligns with our civilisation ethos. It encourages multidisciplinary learning. It gives priority to Indian languages. It envisions education as the development of the person, not just employability."

Highlighting the policy's features, he said: "The most significant aspect of the National Education Policy is that it allows students to learn in their mother tongue."

Vice President Dhankhar said the policy has got us out of the colonial regime. "Even medicine and engineering in local languages, which could not be entertained even in dreams, is getting shape on the ground," he said.

Calling upon institutions to study and adopt the policy in full spirit, he urged: "I beseech you all and the faculty and directors, wherever they are to please do a thorough study of National Education Policy to realise its real intent and purpose so that we reap the harvest of it."

He further underscored the importance of changing academic landscape saying: "Today, not only Bharat but the entire world is faced with formidable challenges, rapid technological disruption… one challenge which the vice-chancellors must be facing is faculty. Faculty availability, faculty retention, and sometimes faculty addition. I would appeal to all of you to engage in sharing with one another. Use technology, don't be an island in yourselves. It is not a time to be standalone because this challenge has to be fixed. We have no time."

--IANS

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