Given the god awful mess that goes by the name of Education Sector this is just wishful thinking. But then parenting isn't messed up. Yet. And, hence there may be some hope in thinking about these. I wish that the schools, colleges, universities and the parents put some thought towards ensuring that they encourage and influence the following aspects of personality:

• a fearlessness in asking questions. Being curious hasn't killed kittens or cats yet. And, the inability to will oneself to be curious about anything and everything, to be fearless in asking questions and seeking answers is going to extract a heavy social price when we look in retrospective and wonder about what could have been. The schizophrenic quandry of emerging-vs-emerged economy aside, to be able to progress as a society one requires curious minds - and, an encouragement to adopt that attitude begins very early.
• a work ethic that is based around honest, diligent and pure old fashioned 'hard work'. I've seen far too many young ones bend at the slightest hindrance or, whisper of an obstacle without applying the proverbial blood-n-brawn to the issue. A work ethic that is cultivated and nurtured from a young age and includes appreciation of hard work would go a long way in ensuring a generation of wonderful citizens
• a self discipline that motivates oneself to work hard. And by hard I mean gruellingly hard in a never-stop-till-goal-is-reached kind of hard way. Nothing less should be acceptable and, that should come from within. 

The environment that encourages these aspects is probably the only primary way we can build up a framework that unleashes the potential. Here's a quote/paragraph that perhaps puts into perspective very clearly what I am talking about.

“We had four million people here in 1790,” he tells Vanity Fair. “We’re not more intelligent than people in China, which then had 290 million people, or Europe, which had 50 million. We didn’t work harder, we didn’t have a better climate, and we didn’t have better resources. But we definitely had a system that unleashes potential. This system works. Since then, we’ve been through at least 15 recessions, a civil war, a Great Depression…. All of these things happen. But this country has optimized human potential, and it’s not over yet. It’s like what’s written on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren: If you seek his monument, look around you.”