Delhi’s schools are churning out job providers, not job seekers: Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was the chief guest at the 14th convocation of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University on Wednesday.

Delivering the chief guest’s address at the 14th convocation of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University on Wednesday, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal advised the university to seek international accreditation for their courses from reputed institutions and universities so to enhance the employability of students.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia hand over a degree to a student during the 14th Convocation of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

In a series of tweets released after concluding the speech, Baijal said, “Encouraged students to work on what they are passionate about and choose job options carefully after introspection keeping in mind the long term vision. Also highlighted the need to bridge the generation gap between the elderly and the young to create a mutually inclusive learning environment. Exhorted the young minds to employ their knowledge and expertise for nation building as it is the youth of India that will shape the future of the country.”

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was also present on the occasion, called upon unleashing the potential and energy of the youth, while asserting that India will make great progress if her youth are given the freedom to excel.

Addressing the new graduates, Kejriwal said, “A silent revolution is taking place in Delhi’s education sector — our schools are ensuring that children become job providers and not job seekers. We have started work on assessing whether what students are taught is actually worthy of giving them jobs. The youth of this country wasn’t allowed to think about entrepreneurship. Their energy, potential and innovative thinking wasn’t given a conducive environment. Just think of the progress our country would see if all students start developing their ideas. Business Blasters (programme) should be implemented at the university level too so that students get to work on their business ideas.”

Under the Business Blasters programme in Delhi government schools, every student gets a seed funding of ₹2,000 to develop her idea. “No student should leave the university without a career programme; when they step out with their degree, they should know what to do in life. Britishers specifically designed this system to create hurdles for us; we need to redevelop the whole system. Government systems should help people, make their lives easier, but our system tries to stop ambition the moment it grows,” Kejriwal said.

“We have taken up a lot of innovations in governance in Delhi and are working on transforming the system. We all must come together to change the system for good and take our society forward,” Kejriwal said.