CSES mourns the passing of renowned economist, and academician, Prof. (Dr.) C T Kurian. Prof. Kurian, a well-wisher of CSES on a personal level had also associated with us, the major platform of association being the National Conference and Workshop Series in 2000, on the theme, “Education in Kerala’s Development: Towards a New Agenda”. Prof. Kurian presented a paper at the Workshop on Higher Education in Kerala. Prof. Kurian based his lecture on the four pillars of learning; learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, as identified by the UNESCO in its report “Learning the Treasure Within”. Prof. Kurian, made some relevant observations about education in Kerala, which stands true more so today, nearly a quarter of century later. He stressed on the significance for education as learning to do; particularly in Kerala, with the problems of unemployment. The whole question of restructuring education from the point of view of preparing people for their future life and their future work is indeed significant. While Kerala achieved something in this direction particularly in vocational courses and professional courses, the problem still remains. He raised an important question of how job oriented education can be achieved. As the demand will be from here and elsewhere, to prepare students for jobs, education right from the beginning should be related to life. It is also important to have a perspective about the future, particularly in a situation where the social environment is changing so rapidly. No amount of job orientation today will be adequate to ensure that those who go through education, particularly higher education, will be fit for jobs in the future. He maintained that education, particularly higher education, must become something of the grammar of learning; how to go on learning throughout life. If not, people may not be able to cope when things begin to change. Students must have curiosity, inquisitiveness, eagerness to go on learning and the methodology of doing this, in particular area that they will go into. Knowledge is going to play a crucial role in the 21st century. The third peg ‘learning to live together’ points to the fact that learning begins within the context of a community and a child learns from the family, which is already a depository of knowledge. Learning process is a communitarian process. In this age of information technology, where it is propagated that it will be no longer necessary to have educational institutions, the significance of these institutions today is in providing an opportunity for young people to interact with others, both in the learning process and in the process of living. In the Kerala context, what is needed to learn to live together is a respect for differences and interactive acceptance of differences, noticing, appreciating, and accepting differences. This can be done through the process of education, through interaction with society in which the child lives and learns. It can be a tremendous preparation for life of the individual and of the community at large. Finally, discussing the question of ‘learning to be’, he drew attention to the fact that education has different dimensions and is something that an individual experiences, which brings out what is within an individual. This will define the nature of your involvement in life with society. Drawing from the teachings of early writers like Plato, Socrates and Kautilya, Prof. Kurien also encouraged the need to place before students, “how should I live?”. The question needs to be asked much more seriously in technical education, with technology becoming so pronounced, He concluded that it needs to be examined whether the education system in the state is, “providing opportunity for students to confront this issue of how to live”? If not, whatever we achieve in our education is not satisfactory.