Baishali Mukherjee

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu is all set to take significant steps towards youth empowerment and also implement education reforms in 2025 in order to boost the state’s growth and self-reliance. Calling 2024-25 as the “Year of Youth,” Khandu emphasized the crucial role of the youth in nation building, in a recent press meet. “The ‘Year of Youth’ recognizes the immense responsibility our youth hold in building a developed India and a prosperous Arunachal,” he said.

The initiative towards youth empowerment will target entrepreneurship building among the youth of the state, which in turn will ensure lesser reliance on government and public sector jobs. Comprehensive skill development programs and policies are being framed to create a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in the state (pop.18 lakh).  The Arunachal Pradesh Entrepreneurship Development Programme (APEDP) is already in place. Designed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP), the program includes components like mentorship and resource support to the future entrepreneurs.

The state government of Arunachal Pradesh is also working in partnership with premier institutions like IIMs and the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) Guwahati to launch advanced training programs for the youth. Plans are also in place to provide funding support to the youth-led startups of the state.

In education reform, the Pema Khandu government plans to improve the quality of public education by improving infrastructure, and enhancing opportunities for the students. The state government is planning to bring in transformative changes in the next three years. Education Minister P D Sona and advisor to the state government Mutchu Mithi are preparing an all-inclusive reform plan which will target building well-equipped inter-village schools, armed with hostels and new-age teaching-learning methods. The government is also mulling over how to optimize teaching and non-teaching resources by closing or merging underperforming schools. However, given the shortage of trained teachers in key subjects in the state, proper implementation of the initiatives remains uncertain.

Moreover, Chief Minister Pema Khandu has also proposed establishing a university solely dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and research of the state’s indigenous cultures, languages, and faiths. The idea for the university was conceived after a meeting between the chief minister and Prof. Yashwant Pathak, founder, International Centre for Cultural Studies (ICCS), at the silver jubilee celebration of the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFC-SAP). ICCS, a non-profit organization working in the field of cultural preservation, will be a partner in developing the proposed university. According to Khandu, once established the university will play a crucial role as  a global platform showcasing the age-old and rich indigenous cultures of the state. 

Also read: Arunachal shuts 600 schools due to low enrolment: Minister