Jagan calls for job-oriented curriculum and certified online courses for students

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has advised officials to hone the skills of degree students to help them get employment immediately after the end of their studies. He called for the introduction of a job-oriented curriculum and certified online courses for youths for self-employment.

The Chief Minister conducted a review on higher education on Thursday. Every higher educational institution in AP should get NAAC accreditation, to enable them provide quality education to students at national and international standards, he said.

“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 choose self-employed professions,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to acquaint themselves with various courses being imparted to students in reputed educational institutions abroad and implement the same curriculum in AP’s educational institutions.

“Such curriculum should be integrated with the syllabus by June next. Officials should arrange a tie-up with national institutions like National Stock Exchange (NSE) to help the students turn into self- employed professionals in various sectors after their study.”

The Chief Minister suggested that steps be taken to fill vacant posts in the department by clearing the legal hurdles by June in view of the green signal being given by the government.

The Chief Minister said officials should become more active to meet the pace of reforms being introduced in the department. All higher education institutions should strive to achieve NAAC accreditation in the next three years by improving their standards in teaching. Cancel the recognition of institutions that fail to get NAAC accreditations, he said.

Stressing that a uniform policy is needed for giving recognition to various colleges, the Chief Minister said the Skill University should take the responsibility of designing the curriculum in tandem with the IT department to meet the operational demands of various industries in every district.

He said students should become proficient in courses such as coding, cloud computing and software development to meet the growing demands of the job market.

“The government is establishing skill development centers across 175 constituencies. Students should be trained to meet the scarcity of experts in the fields of solar panel making, repairing of solar motors and maintenance of solar parks. The same courses should be introduced by June.”

Besides strengthening the Academic Staff Colleges in Visakhapatnam and Tirupati to improve standards of the teaching staff, another such college should be established in the central Andhra region, the CM has directed.

He asked the officials to make a final decision based on the attendance of students and facilities available in the private B.Ed colleges that are cheating their students. The government is implementing a fees reimbursement scheme at higher level and Amma Vodi at lower level to reduce the school dropout rate in the state.

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

Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana, Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy, adviser to government (education) Sambasiva Reddy, principal secretary (higher education) Syamala Rao, RGUKT chancellor Prof K.C. Reddy, commissioner of college education P. Bhaskar, higher education council chairman Prof Hemachandra Reddy and others were present.