‘Varsities must find way to stop the brain drain’: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia

Sisodia urged universities to think out of the box to find solutions for the large quantities and lack of enough space for the students in higher education.

Deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said the higher education institutions in the country should work on stopping the “brain drain”.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia during a press conference at his party office, in New Delhi. (ANI Photo)

In his valedictory address at the north zone vice-chancellors’ meet, organised by the Association of Indian Universities on Tuesday, Sisodia said, “Universities play a big role in the development of a country. They identify talent and nurture it. As a nation, all of us have failed if our students are studying in universities abroad and thereafter contributing to the economy of others. Therefore, universities need to reflect on how to stop the brain drain.”

Stressing upon the difference between education and human resources development, he said, “Human resources development is a mere tool of education; it is not the foundation of education. It is the role and responsibility of education to ensure that our children are not considered as mere tools or instruments by the world but as thriving human beings.”'

Sisodia said universities and educators will face certain challenges in India in the post-Covid and post-National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 scenario. “The first challenge pertained to the challenge of quantity. We introduced several missions and laws such as the Right to Education. We ensured that all children attended school. We created a bumper crop of school graduates. But then the child asks: Where should I go? What should I do now? And we don’t have answers,” he said.

Sisodia urged universities to think out of the box to find solutions for the large quantities and lack of enough space for the students in higher education.

“The bottom line is that we can say that students who graduate from our universities and colleges stands at some level of achievement. We cannot decide the maximum success a child can reach, but we can decide the minimum limits for quality education. We should guarantee minimum levels of education.

“Talk about research. Talk about entrepreneurship in your convocation, that after graduating, our students created jobs for 2000 people. We have to celebrate our job providers,” he said.