Bangalore: President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Jul 23, 2004) called for a change in the school curriculum at the secondary level to encourage entrepreneurial skills and increase employment potential.

The educational syllabus at the secondary level should incorporate courses, which turn the children into "good entrepreneurs" and make them well equipped to face the job market, he said inaugurating a national conference on Enhancing Learning in Elementary Schools in Bangalore today.

Kindling of creativity in children from the pre-primary level itself is essential to make them "willing learners" and teachers who can bring out this creativity are the "real teachers", he said.

This has to be followed by imparting value-based knowledge which will not only help them evolve into enlightened citizens but also empower them to achieve higher goals, he said speaking at the conference jointly organised by ministry for Human Resources Development and Azim Premji Foundation.

"Righteousness has to be inculcated from the very beginning in a child" as it will help in weeding out corruption embedded in the very system, Kalam said.

"Father, mother and the primary school teacher are the three people who can really help in removing corruption," he said.

He lauded the primary educational model adopted by the Azim Premji Foundation and the pre-primary "Tele-education model" developed by Prof M R Raju in Andhra Pradesh.