Education / Dharmendra Pradhan Lays Foundation for RISHI Building at OSOU on Teachers' Day; Launches Two New-Age Courses

Sambalpur, Sept 5: On Teachers’ Day, Sambalpur MP and former Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for the RISHI (Residential Internship and Skill Hub for Industry) building on the Odisha State Open University (OSOU) campus in Sambalpur on Saturday.

On the occasion, Pradhan also launched two new-age courses -- “Self-Health Care and Wellness” for youth and “AI Tools for Collaborative Learning” aimed at enhancing the skills of teachers.

Addressing the gathering, Pradhan said bridging the gap between academic degrees and employability is one of the biggest challenges facing the education system today.

He said the mindset that a 'degree is everything', which has continued since the colonial era, needs to change. Merely acquiring textbook knowledge is not enough, he said, stressing the importance of practical education and skill development to make young people capable and employable.

Pradhan said the RISHI project would provide students with practical training based on the requirements of the industry and help them become self-reliant.

Focus On Odisha’s ‘Amrit Generation’
Pradhan said the current global instability and disruption in supply chains have affected employment opportunities in India. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been encouraging young people to become job creators, he said.

Odisha has around 1 crore young people, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the state’s population, Pradhan said, describing them as the “Amrit Generation” of the 21st century. The future of Odisha over the next 100 years rests on this generation, he added.

He said young people today are capable of obtaining PhD degrees at the age of 23, but education must also equip them with practical skills. The RISHI project, he said, can serve as a transformative bridge to make the state’s youth skilled and self-reliant.

Pradhan also highlighted the emerging challenges posed by cybercrime and artificial intelligence. He said innovation is necessary to bridge the performance gap between humans and machines.

Referring to Santha Kabi (Saint Poet) Bhima Bhoi, Pradhan said his poetry showed the world a path to live, adding that social development is possible through a combination of knowledge and practical skills.

OSOU Student Strength Reaches 40,000
Pradhan said OSOU, established in Sambalpur in 2015, faced difficult circumstances during its initial eight years and was largely left with only a building after construction.

After the situation came to notice, the Centre provided Rs 20 crore under the PM-USHA scheme for infrastructure development at the university, he said.

Pradhan said the university, which once began with zero admissions, now has around 40,000 students.

Also Read: Dharmendra Pradhan Begins 4-Day Visit to Sambalpur, Bargarh

1,250 Content Creators To Be Trained
Pradhan announced that an audio-visual lab would be established at OSOU over the next few years to train around 1,250 content creators and influencers.

He said the trained youth would use social media to showcase the culture, lifestyle and traditions of their respective villages, besides highlighting natural beauty, temples and the rural economy to audiences across the world.

The initiative, he said, would help villages gain a new identity by bringing their unique cultural and social narratives to the global stage.