Morung Express News
Kohima | September 14
A press conference was held on September 14 at Raj Bhavan with Governor P B Acharya; Minister for School Education and SCERT, Yitachu and delegates from Nitte University, Mangalore.
During the press conference, Acharya informed that the Nitte University recently opened a department of North East called NAMMMASTE (which stands for Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, East) on 12 August which aims to promote national and emotional integration in the country by introducing the languages of the North East among its students. Currently the university offers four language certificate courses namely Assamese, Mao, Meiteilong and Khasi languages.
“Learning our dialect is a must for national and emotional integration. Student should be aware that education should not only be about earning money or getting rich, but should be about national integration and to make a society a greater place,” said Acharya who also maintained that “we are trying our best to strengthen border areas.” Acharya viewed that respecting each other’s dialects and languages can bring integration among the various communities in the country.
While discussing the education system in the country and Nagaland, Acharya stressed on the art of giving back to society.
Six educational institutions from Nagaland namely College of Nursing, CIHSR, Dimapur ; The Global Open University Nagaland; St. Josephs’ College, Jakhama; Assisi Higher Secondary School, Dimapur; Pranab Vidyapith Higher Secondary School, Dimapur and Pranabananda College were also invited to deliberate on entering into MoUs in the future.
Dr. S Ramananda Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Nitte University stated that the idea of introducing language courses was suggested by the Governor PB Acharya during a visit to the University. “North East is not new for the University because of the presence of NE students, but Nagaland is new to us because there are no students from Nagaland,” said Dr. Shetty who also mentioned the disconnect with the NE region due to its distance, where one region is in the extreme North East and the other is in the extreme South West. However connectivity is progressing with the introduction of the NAMMMASTE department.
The University adopts financially poor students from the North East and provides free education as part of its social responsibility. “We have to join and mingle with all parts of our country then only we can say that we are all one and we are all Indians,” added Dr. Shetty.
Dr. M S Mootithaya, Registrar, Nitte University also highlighted the upcoming programs the University plans to take up in its aim to integrate with the North East, such as the recently launched NAMMMASTE Department, student and faculty exchanges to learn academic programs, collaborative research, cultural exchange, and skill development programs for NE students.
Nitte University, Mangalore, Karnataka was conferred the status of Deemed-to-be-University in 2008 and currently comprises of five colleges mostly focused on medical science and health.
