[Assam] Gogoi’s stress on job-oriented courses (The Sentinel,04.11.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

Gogoi’s stress on job-oriented courses
>From our Correspondent
JORHAT, Nov 3: Admitting that Asom lags behind several other States in the education sector, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today stressed the need for introduction of courses which are ‘relevant and employment-oriented’. He also made a case for emulating the southern States which have made rapid strides in the field of education. 
The Chief Minister was speaking after inaugurating the State-level education summit, organized by Jorhat-based voluntary organization Assam Academic Centre, at the auditorium of North East Institute of Science and Technology (formerly RRL) here this evening. The conclave was attended by Education Minister Ripun Bora, Vice Chancellor of Dibrugarh University Professor Kulendu Pathak, Vice Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University Dr SS Baghel, NEIST Director Dr PG Rao, Prof MP Bezbaruah of Gauhati University and Prof Prabin Bora of IIT, Guwahati. Other dignitaries included Director of Tea Research Association Dr Mridul Hazarika, Registrar of Dibrugarh University Kandarpa Deka and Secretary of Higher Education R Zaman. 
Listing problems like unemployment, insurgency and economic backwardness which are plaguing Asom, Gogoi maintained that education could bring drastic changes in the society. He made a suggestion for introduction of crash courses in agricultural and allied fields. 
There is a lot of scope for generating employment in fishery, dairy, floriculture, piggery, media and entertainment, the Chief Minister said, adding that the need is to provide “the right type of education to promote career opportunities”. 
The Asom Education Minister termed the summit as timely as it was aimed at addressing vital issues at a time when there is population explosion, unemployment and regional imbalance. Calling for structural changes in the education system, Bora said that priority should be accorded to professional and technical courses. The Minister revealed that three medical college hospitals and one engineering college would be set up in the State soon. Several new courses have been introduced in Dibrugarh University, Bora said and added that private universities would also come up in Asom. 
Representatives of three leading IT companies – Wipro, IBM and Infosys – spoke on their ventures into the north-eastern States through PowerPoint presentations. While Wipro focused on hiring of manpower and campus recruitment, IBM gave an overview of IT-enabled services and prospects of e-governance. The Infosys representative stressed the need for building up faculty for the engineering courses. College teachers and representatives of student unions also participated in the education summit.
   
  (The Sentinel,04.11.2007) 



       
---------------------------------
 Save all your chat conversations. Find them online.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://assamnet.org/pipermail/assam_assamnet.org/attachments/20071103/11f19033/attachment.html