Chandigarh: In a significant decision,
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday called upon
the Vice Chancellors of all the Universities in the state to
prepare a comprehensive plan to revamp the Education system in
order to impart vocational training to one lac youth in a
year, especially to the economically poor and bright students
with rural background.
Presiding over the first meeting of the
Vice-Chancellors' Consultative Group here today, Badal said;
"It is my endeavor that none should be left illiterate and
uneducated in the state because the growth and development in
terms of physical infrastructure is meaning less until we
improve our human resource development through imparting
quality education to our youth at all levels of schools,
colleges and universities".
It may be recalled here that the state government had
constituted this consultative group to seek realistic and
relevant solutions for contemporary problems, which are of
concern to various functionaries including Ministers,
Planners, Administrators and Educationists. The basic
objective to form this consultative group is to raise
the standard of higher, technical and professional education
to enable our students to compete globally.
Taking part in the brain storming session, Badal asked
the vice chancellors to allow starting 'add on courses' in the
colleges affiliated to their respective universities to
enable the students to get vocational training so that they
could be gainfully employed later on.
The Chief Minister underlined the need to motivate the
students to bring a paradigm shift in their mind set to opt
for professional courses rather than traditional bachelor
degrees courses like BA. He further directed the VCs to start
some Instructor Training Courses also to impart quality
technical training in a proper manner to further trained our
students in these vocational courses.
While inviting more innovative suggestions Badal said
that since the Vice-Chancellors of various universities in the
state represented a blend of wisdom, rich academic track
record and sound administrative experience, only they could
give valuable inputs to streamline the education system in the
Schools, Colleges and Universities of the state.
Taking part in the deliberations Education Minister
Punjab Dr. Upinderjit Kaur informed in the meeting that to
impart quality education the State Government would implement
the rationalization of Schools and Teachers.
Appreciating the efforts of the state Government under
the leadership of Mr. Parkash Singh Badal to recruit more than
17,000 new teachers she said that the state government would
recruit more 11,000 new teachers by December 31 as the
process for recruitment was on in the State.
She also urged the heads of the educational
institution to mobilize teachers of their respective
institutes to play a pro active role in shaping the destiny
of the students saying, "Reputation of any institution rests
on the quality of the students which it produces".
On special invitation of Badal, Former Education
Minister of Pakistan Punjab Imran Masood also attended the
meeting. It may be recalled here that Iqbal initiated the move
to establish Guru Nanak Dev University at Nankana Sahib
(Pakistan).
He informed in the meeting that ground work related to
this upcoming university had been completed. Inviting Badal on
the occasion of earth breaking ceremony of the University in
December, 2009, he said that formal invitation would be sent
to the Chief Minister along with the Prime Minister of India
Dr. Manmohan Singh after finalizing the programme.
He further said that he was looking for the
cooperation of Punjab Government for which Badal gave him
assurance that his government and Guru Nanak Dev University,
Amritsar would extend all possible help in providing
literature and other related educational material for the
research in this upcoming university at Nankana Sahib.
On this
occasion Imran also shared his experiences regarding the
Pakistan's education system and various reforms initiated by
them.
Badal presented Saropa and a memento to Imran and his
brother Haroon Masood, Former Mayor of Gujarat, Pakistan who
accompanied him.
Earlier the Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev
University, Prof. Ajaib Singh Brar, who is also the convener
of Vice-Chancellors' Consultative Group presented a concept
paper on Education in Punjab-Problems and Approaches to
Rectification.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 21:24