| JAMMU: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today emphasized that higher education department should provide quality and relevant courses to the youth to ensure employability and also foster an environment of academic excellence and research.Advisor Bhatnagar made these comments while chairing a meet to review the progress of Higher Education Department(HED) in different sectors at Civil Secretariat here today.The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary HED, Talat Parvez Rohella; Director Colleges J&K, Peerzada Mohammad Yaseen; Additional Secretary HED, Director Finance HED and other concerned officials of the department.The Advisor asked the officials to devise a proper plan of action for the newly established degree colleges so that the courses can be started as per the demands of the students and are market driven with maximum chances of employability.”We need capacity building programmes and also focus on infrastructural development specially in view of the vast increase in number of colleges in the recent past”, the Advisor said.Giving a detailed presentation regarding the progress of HED, Talat Parvez Rohella informed the meeting that out of newly sanctioned degree colleges, 48 have been made functional with more than 3200 students enrolled in different streams.The Commissioner Secretary also apprised the Advisor about reforms being made in the higher education department on regular basis. He informed the Advisor that the general enrolment ratio of J&K is 30.9% which is better than the national average of 26.3%.The Commissioner Secretary further informed the meeting IT enabled classrooms, e-learning content through Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds(SWAYAM) platform, employability enhancement initiatives and other innovative measures have been taken across the degree colleges of J&K for facilitating the students on regular basis besides training programs for industry skill, faculty improvement programs, career counselling and placement cells and digital classroom infrastructure will be established in due time.Advisor Bhatnagar directed the concerned officials to optimally utilize the advanced technological innovations in the field of teaching and learning to shape the future of students.He asked them to make sure that the faculty in colleges lay special focus on over all development of their students and enabling them to face all impending challenges of today’s era of high competition with confidence.The Advisor asked the Commissioner Secretary to expedite the process of building infrastructure of quality level at the newly established degree colleges besides fast pacing the recruitment process of all the referred posts. |
