Tuesday, November 14, 2006
HRD MINISTER URGES 12 STATES TO EXPAND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
| HRD MINISTER URGES 12 STATES TO EXPAND TECHNICAL EDUCATION | |
| | 13:27 IST |
The Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Arjun Singh, has urged Chief Ministers of 12 large States to initiate urgent policies and programmes so that the intake capacity in technical education institutions in relation to the State’s population comes on par with the national average, and their youth are “able to adequately benefit from the opportunities which are becoming available due to our fast-growing economy”.
A review of availability of seats in degree and diploma-level technical education courses, per lakh population, revealed that while for the country as a whole, 68 degree and 31 diploma-level seats were available in technical education institutions per one lakh population, both these figures were way below the national average in 9 major States. These States and the number of degree and diploma-level seats available in them per one lakh population are: Bihar (3 and 4), Assam (4 and 6), Jharkhand (15 and 10), West Bengal (24 and 11), Himachal Pradesh (26 and 13), Chhattisgarh (28 and 13), Uttar Pradesh (36 and 7), Rajasthan (38 and 6), and Orissa (55 and 26).
Besides, in Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat, number of degree-level seats per lakh population is only 21 and 39, respectively, while in Madhya Pradesh, this figure for diploma-level seats is only 19.
Among the corrective steps suggested by Shri Arjun Singh to the Chief Ministers to address the deficiencies are:
- Establishment of new institutions, especially in backward areas,
- Expansion of intake in existing institutions,
- Opening new branches and courses, especially in emerging areas,
- Grant of incentives for establishment of bona-fide non-government institutions of good quality and non commercial nature,
- Programme of quality improvement of technical education, and
- Improvement and expansion of secondary education
The Ministry has also advised the All India Council of Technical Education to take special steps to promote expansion of Technical Education in these 12 large States.
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