‘Make students skillful’

PNS | Vijayawada

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed the need to integrate certified job-oriented online vertical courses like risk analysis, risk management, banking, and real estate administration with mainstream curriculum for improving the skills of degree students and enabling them to choose self-employed professions.

During the review meeting on Higher Education held here on Thursday, the Chief Minister directed the officials to acquaint themselves with various courses being imparted to students in well-known educational institutions abroad and implement the same curriculum in our educational institutions.

The curriculum should be integrated with the syllabus by June next, he suggested, adding that officials should also have a tie-up with national institutions like National Stock Exchange (NSE) to develop the students as self-employed professionals in various sectors.  
He suggested that steps be taken to fill the vacant posts in the department by clearing legal hurdles by June in view of the green signal given by the government. Officials should become more active to meet the pace of reforms being introduced in the department.

Every higher education institution should strive to achieve NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) accreditation in the next three years by improving standards in teaching and others to get eligibility step by step every year, outlined the Chief Minister, asserting categorically that recognition of institutions which fail in this respect should be cancelled.  

Pointing out that a uniform policy is needed in accordance with recognition to various colleges, he said that Skill University should take the responsibility of designing a curriculum in tandem with the IT Department to meet the operational demands of various industries in every district.  

Students should become proficient in courses such as coding, cloud computing, and software development to meet the growing demands.As the government is establishing skill development centres in all 175 constituencies, students should be trained to meet the scarcity of experts in the fields of solar panel making, repairing solar motors, and maintenance of solar parks, and the same courses should be introduced by June next.

Besides strengthening the Academic Staff Colleges in Visakhapatnam and Tirupati to improve the standards of teaching staff, another such college should be established in the central Andhra region, directed the Chief Minister, asking the officials to take a final decision based on the attendance of students and facilities available in the private B.Ed colleges which are cheating students.

He further said that officials should work towards achieving sustainable goals in the educational sector as the government is implementing a fee reimbursement scheme at a higher level and Amma Vodi at a lower level to reduce the dropout rate in the state.

Officials should explore the possibility of establishing a recruitment board to fill vacancies in Universities while filling vacant posts in IIITs as soon as possible, he suggested.

Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, Chief Secretary Dr. K.S. Jawahar Reddy, Advisor to Government (Education) A. Sambasiva Reddy, Principal Secretary (Higher Education) J. Syamala Rao, RGUKT Chancellor Prof KC Reddy, Commissioner of College Education P. Bhaskar, Higher Education Council Chairman Prof K. Hemachandra Reddy and others were present.