From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jan 7: Two top officials from the Tamil Nadu government visited Karnataka to apprise themselves about the implementation of the reforms in Higher Education Department in UUCMS and LMS and the corresponding progress achieved in the State.
Karthikeyan, principal secretary, and Lakshmi, commissioner, Department of Higher Education, Tamil Nadu was on a two-day visit here on Thursday and Friday. They met P Pradeep, commissioner, DCTE and Prof B Thimme Gowda, vice-chairperson, State Higher Education Council.
Meanwhile, they also appreciated the educational reforms being introduced in the state. They visited Hitech ITI at Peenya and Karnataka Examination Authority as well. The officials of Karnataka apprised them that about 2.5 lakh contents developed by government lecturers had been uploaded and made available to students on LMS.
The Tamil Nadu officials also obtained information about digital learning and the smart classroom set-up. Besides, they also discussed about ways of achieving autonomy, accountability and transparency in higher education.
It is learnt that the Tamil Nadu officials also discussed about revamping of the ITI syllabus to suit the current industry needs and increase in the number of students seeking admissions to Polytechnic.
They were also keen to know about the measures taken here in the state with regard to effective implementation of NEP.
Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Higher Education has asked the National School of India University here to follow the reservation policy of the government in giving 25% reservation for the local students.
In a letter written to the vice-chancellor of the University he has opined that students who are selected under All India national quota should not be counted under the reservation for locals. This amounts to violation of the norms and it is against the principle of natural justice, Dr Narayan said.
In his letter, he has mentioned that the University had not adhered to adopting 25% reservation for local students in the past two years. In similar institutions located at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Tiruchinappalli, Visakhapattanam, Raipura and other places reservation for local students has been found to be strictly observed. The same should be followed here also, he said.
The National Law School should adhere to the amendment introduced in 2020, the minister remarked.
The minister, who is also heading the Skill Development, said on Saturday that measures have been taken on priority basis to teach English communications skill to students with an aim to widen their employment opportunities.
He was speaking while inaugurating the 'Language Lab' set up at the Malleswaram 13th cross Government Pre- University College by the Skills Development Corporation under the 'Sankalpa' initiative.
Language labs have been set up at 6 locations in the state since January 2022 and 784 students have been provided training so far, he explained.
In these centres English communication skill is being taught using headset, microphone, projector and such other state of the art equipment.
The training focusses on several factors including pronunciation of words. The intention is our students should become proficient in using the English language, Narayan explained.
Other than this, Language labs have been functional at GTTCs of Challakere, Yadugiri, Koppala, Government ITI (Kollegala) and Government Women's ITI (Mangaluru). One such lab will be started soon at Mandya University, he added.
Mr Ashwin Gowda, MD, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation, Ravi, principal, PU College and Krishna Murthy, skill development officer were present.