ITANAGAR, 25 Mar: Education Minister Taba Tedir said that technical education plays a vital role in the development of the country by creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life.
Addressing a meeting of the Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Technical Education (APSCTE) here on 22 March, Tedir said that “the state government, with its limited resources, is trying to achieve some improvements in the status of access to education, along with quality and introduction of plethora of reforms in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.”
The minister called for exploring the possibility of upgrading the Rajiv Gandhi Government Polytechnic to a degree-level institution.
“By establishing industry-academic linkages and improving the soft and practical skills of the students, the employability of the students will be enhanced, along with self-sustenance of the passed-out students,” Tedir said, and exhorted the polytechnic teachers to create awareness among all the stakeholders regarding the importance of technical education.
Higher & Technical Education Director Alik Jongkey said that “it is of paramount importance to discuss the matters pertaining to technical education and its expansion in Arunachal.”
He said that there are only a few numbers of technical institutions in Arunachal at present to cater to the needs of students.
“Presently, there are seven functional polytechnics in the state, apart from RGU, NERIST and NIT. Expansion of technical education in the state is also underway as two new engineering colleges – one in Toru (Papum Pare) and another in Tezu (Lohit) – are coming up in the state,” Jongkey said.
He said that, with the implementation of the NEP 2020 and expansion of the education sector in the state, the APSCTE needs to be revamped and strengthened with sufficient manpower.
All the members discussed the decreasing trend of enrollment in the polytechnics in the state, and suggested various means to address the issue and to improve the quality of technical education and placement and employment.
Technical Education Deputy Director Sanjay Bengia presented the annual reports along with other technical and financial data.
Experts from RGU, the NERIST, the AICTE (ER), the BoPT (ER), the labour & employment secretariat and the additional education secretariat, besides the directors of secondary education and textiles & handicrafts, representatives from the departments of information technology, the RGGP principal, and representatives from various polytechnic institutes attended the meeting.
