Jaipur, July 13 -- Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, on Saturday said that the mushrooming coaching centres across the country are against the very idea of the national education policy (NEP). Addressing the fourth convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Kota, he said, "The coaching centres have turned out to be poaching centres. They have become black holes for talent in regimented silos. They are against the flow of NEP implementation and are menacing for our youth who are our future. We must address this malice that is worrisomely concerning. We cannot allow our education to be so smeared and tarnished." "How can we even speak of Gurukuls today-among the 22 visual depictions in the Indian Constitution, there is also an image of a Gurukul. We have always believed in the donation of knowledge. Coaching centres must use their infrastructure to transform into skill centres. I urge civil society and public representatives before me and outside to appreciate the urgency of this disease. They must converge to restore sanity in education. We need coaching for skill," he further stated. He also underlined how obsession with marks is harming the spirit of learning, saying, "The obsession with perfect grades and standardised scores have compromised curiosity, which is an inalienable facet of human intelligence. The seats are limited but coaching centres are all over the country. They prepare the minds of students for years together and robotize them. Their thinking has absolutely stymied. A lot of psychological problems can arise out of it." The Vice-President encouraged students to look beyond grades, saying, "Your marksheets and grades will not define you. When you take a leap into the competitive world, your knowledge and thinking mind will define you." Dhankahr further added, "Nations will no longer be compromised or colonized by armies as armies have now been replaced by algorithms. Sovereignty will not be lost through invasions, but through dependence on foreign digital infrastructure", he noted. The Vice-President called for a new vision of patriotism rooted in technological leadership, "We are getting into a new era, an era of new Nationalism. Technological leadership is the new frontier of Patriotism. We have to be world leaders in technological leadership." He also raised concerns over import dependence in critical sectors like defence, saying, "If we get technology driven equipment from outside, especially in sectors such as defence, that country has the power to bring us to a standstill."...