LANDRAN (MOHALI) APRIL 11:Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal today announced that the Punjab government would soon formulate a policy to allow private engineering and technical colleges in the state to run 10+2 classes in their institutions to impart quality education in the science stream to the students to compete globally.Presiding over a state level placement drive at Chandigarh Engineering College here, Mr.Badal asked the management of such institutions of repute to provide quality education to the students especially in the rural areas up to 10+2 level as feeder institutions in the state. He said that once such students were admitted in these institutions of excellence then their career was assured. He also impressed upon the management of Chandigarh Group of Colleges to adopt some Government Sr. Secondary schools in its vicinity to provide quality education to the students upto +2 level and the state government would extend fulsome support and cooperation to them.
The Chief Minister appreciated the Chandigarh College of Engineering for its excellent and proven track record of the placement of its students in the national as well as multinational companies.
Emphasizing the importance of the quality education, Mr.Badal lamented and described the gross neglect of education and human resource development in the country's planning as an 'alarming trend' which could inflict long term damage on the nation's overall development and progress. He squarely held the governments both States and Centre for the constant deterioration in the educational system and said now it was a high time to make concerted efforts to revamp the entire system according to the emerging trends worldwide in the changed scenario.
The Chief Minister pointed out that Punjab was predominately an agricultural state but with changing scenario in the country industrialization has come to the fore front and therefore, Punjab should also keep a pace with industrialization as the growth rate in the agriculture sector was almost stagnant. He mentioned that engineering, technical education and skill development in the country occupied a critical role in our knowledge economy. "With the industrialization the need for technical and skilled man power at various levels has increased many folds. Our Government has created a new Department of Employment Generation with an objective to provide job opportunities and self-employment to unemployed youth every year through special targeted skill development initiatives" observed Mr.Badal. He said that under this scheme Universities and the Government would jointly initiate efforts to enhance the employability of Punjabi youth through job oriented courses, vocational training and skill development.
Mr.Badal desired that Chandigarh College of Engineering should be upgraded as a deemed university as it was fully equipped with the ultra modern infrastructure and well qualified faculty.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister handed over the placement letters to the students and wished them a bright and successful career.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman of the Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Satnam Singh Sandhu urged the Chief Minister to frame a policy to make technical education far more viable with tremendous employment potential. He said that the number of engineering colleges had risen from merely 4 to 44 within a short span of five years. He emphasized the need to streamline the distance technical education programme which was almost posing a major threat to the growing unemployment amongst the youth. He said that obliviously the students of distance education could not compete well with the regular students. He said that the companies like Wipro, TCS, Satyam, Oracle, Convergys had evinced keen interest to start their development centres in Mohali and had also selected many students from the campus.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included President of Chandigarh Group of Colleges Rashpal Singh Dhaliwal, Director General Dr.GD Bansal, Director HR & Administration Er.AC Sharma and Director Chandigarh Business School Dr.SPS Bedi. The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Special Principal Secretary KJS Cheema and Additional Principal Secretary Gagandeep Singh Brar.