‘Education, The Answer To World Problems’

Bhubaneswar: Former President of the Republic of Mauritius Dr. Rajkeswur Purryag said education was the answer to the problems of the world during his visit to SOA (Deemed to be University) here on Wednesday.

“In Mauritius, we laid a lot of emphasis on education and health from the beginning with good results,” said Dr. Purryag, while interacting with the SOA Vice- Chancellor Prof. Amit Banerjee and other senior officials.

Dr. Purryag, who went round the SOA campuses accompanied by his wife Anita Purryag, said, “Education is evolving and the way technology is developing, the university curriculum should now have an expiry date.”

Dr. Purryag is currently on a visit to Odisha and will be the chief guest at the inauguration of the three-day Diamond Jubilee Convention of the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineers (IIIE) at SOA on Thursday.

Stating that the concept of book learning appeared to have come to an end, he said Mauritius had two thriving universities while several foreign universities had opened their campuses in the island country.

Mauritius had made education free for its citizens and was developing as an education hub attracting students from other continents. Though tourism was one of the backbones of its economy, it was slowly turning into a service economy, he said.

Describing India as ‘fascinating’, he said it was making great economic progress.

“My ancestors were from Bihar and we are emotionally linked to India. I visited my village to meet some of my relatives a few years ago and it was a very emotional home coming,” Dr. Purryag said.