'Encourage students to be curious, innovative'

Imploring educators to pay attention to imparting education in one's mother tongue, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday fervently appealed to schools across the nation to foster the spirit of curiosity, innovation and excellence among the students.

Challenges and opportunities abound in a technology-driven fast changing world and in this context the best skill schools could impart a student is adaptability, he said. "Students must be trained to think quickly on their feet, be agile and innovate using cutting-edge technologies to solve 21st century problems," the Vice President emphasised.

Educational strategy should be aligned to futuristic approach and shun rote learning. Also artificial segregation between curricular and extracurricular activities should be dispensed with and the students encouraged in multidiscipline, he suggested. "It is my fervent appeal to the schools across the nation to foster the spirit of curiosity, innovation and excellence in students," Naidu said. He was informed that the VIS is trying to introduce the concept of 'house parent' to integrate the positive aspects of Guru-Shishya tradition with modern pedagogical practices. Urging teachers to pay attention to the use of mother tongue, he said wherever possible, at least until the primary level, the medium of instruction in public and private schools should be in mother tongue. "We must encourage students to speak freely in their mother tongue in their social environment on the school premises, at all the cultural events and in their homes. Only when we can freely and proudly speak our mother tongue can we truly appreciate our cultural heritage," he said.