Revamp of primary education must: Kalam

A revamp of the country's primary education system is the need of the hour, said former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.On a day-long visit to the city, he was expressing his views on the topic Leaders of Tomorrow, at the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) yesterday. He also stressed on creative classrooms and creative syllabus at school level during the talk. The interactive session that followed his speech saw many queries ranging from transformation in education system to pursuing career dreams.u00a0

A special gift: An engineering student from the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) presented a special caricature of the former president to Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday. Pic/ Krunal Gosavi

Pratik Shah, a third-year engineering student, lamented that his dream career was something else, but he was doing his engineering only because his parents pushed him into it. Offering a solution, Kalam replied, "Now you are in your third year. So in a year you will complete your engineering. First finish your graduation, make a good base on which you can build a career of your interest. Otherwise you will miss it."

"What should be our mission while pursuing higher studies," asked another student. Pat came the reply from the former president, "Excellence in your education must be your mission. Just focus on your studies. For students, education itself is a mission." The CoEP's auditorium was packed with students from various engineering colleges. Hundreds of engineering students were administered an oath by Kalam in his unique style. While explaining leadership qualities required in 21st century, he said, "Nobility, capacity to forgive, love for a clean environment and to be compassionate with companions are the qualities required to lead in the 21st century. Work with integrity and succeed with integrity."

The talk was organised at a curtain raiser of the silver jubilee celebration of DIPEX, a state-level exhibition-cum-competition of engineering, diploma & PG level students, which will be holding an exhibition in the coming month at CoEP. u00a0University of Pune (UoP) Vice-Chancellor Dr W N Gade, President of Srujan Ram Bhogale, CoEP Director Dr Anil Sahasrabuddhe and Dr Pramod Chaudhari were present.