Today there is immense competition and a certificate alone is not enough, one has to learn much more particularly in acquiring skills and technical knowledge. What one learns during this period, in school and college will remain throughout our lives echoed Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio while he was attending the inaugural session of the 19th Biennial General Conference of ANCSU (All Nagaland College Student’s Union) held in Zunheboto town, hosted by Zunheboto Government College on 7th November.

Chief Minister Rio asserted the need and importance of acquiring training and skills in various disciplines. “Youth should be skilled and trained,” he said “to feed into market demands. We have huge potential, the youth today is smart, educated but an extra effort is required to get skills and acquire training.”

The Chief Minister announced that the government is contemplating on declaring April 2020-2021 as the “Year of Skill Development”. A committee will be formed to identify genuine individuals who want to undergo training. The selection will be done from all districts. Experts will be brought in so that candidates can be trained in the right locations and also be provided proper placements after their training. 

Rio further informed that Act East Policy would open many doors for the people of Nagaland as the highway leading to South East Asia would have to go through North East and Nagaland particularly. A lot of opportunity would come but will we be able to avail that opportunity he questioned. We should not miss this opportunity and have to be prepared with knowledge and the right skills”. The youth of this generation must take full advantage of the modern-day tools to pursue excellence in inculcating innovation, creativity with perseverance and consistency, he added. 

Rio expressed that ‘today, we are fortunate that the Naga political issue has concluded on 31st October on a positive note. This is the time to unite. Everybody has to unite, to come together to take solution with positivity and build our future. And this will mostly depend on our youth, on our students’. 

A monolith erected at the college was unveiled to mark the occasion and was followed by invocation prayer. President, ANCSU Katho P Awomi, addressed the gathering and highlighted the concerns and issued faced by students, lecturers and professors. President, NSF, Ninoto Awomi, also took to the stand and further stressed on the plight of the student community in the state. 

Neiphiu Rio said that it was a privilege to discuss issues of youth and student community, the future and hope of our society. He reminded everyone that although the gross enrollment ratio had risen since 2015 to 17.8% from 5.4% yet Nagaland continued to remain as the lowest in the North East region. Therefore, it would take a collective effort to improve our ratings.