Thaindian News

Agartala, May 15 (IANS) The National Institutes of Technology (NIT), India’s premier engineering and technology education centres, will provide skill development training to school dropouts and unemployed youth, officials said here Saturday.
NIT will also be set up schools to provide primary education to children.

A Vocational Training and Skill Development Centre (VTSDC) was launched at the Agartala NIT Saturday by Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. An official said primary education schools under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will begin from this academic session.

The Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Central Board of Workers Education have collaborated to set up the first VTSDC.

“Around 1,000 VTSDCs would be set up across India and three million new generation technical force in multi-skills of construction, automobiles and rural technology would get ready within the next few years,” ISTE president N.R. Shetty told reporters.

“To efficiently utilise the spare time, spare tools and machineries of the premier technical institutions and to come out with skilled and trained personnel from among the school dropouts and jobless youths, such VTSDCs would be set up,” said Shetty, a renowned educationist and former vice-chancellor of Bangalore university.

He said besides the NITs, other leading technical institutes across the country would come forward to set up at least two such VTSDC in each district in India.

“In the first phase, 42 technical institutions across the country were identified to set up such VTSDC.”

NITs were earlier called Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs). The human resource development ministry in 2002 decided to upgrade all the 17 RECs as NITs in phases. There are currently 20 NITs across India, the one in Agartala being the latest.

“To wean the youths away from violent activities and terrorism and to capture the emerging national and international employment opportunities such skill development initiative has been undertaken,” said Shetty who was accompanied by India’s well-known technocrats, academicians and professors.

Agartala NIT’s chairman P.N. Singh said: “The VTSDCs are being set up to redirect the jobless and willing young mind on vocational education, empowering them with technical vocational knowledge and skills leading to professionalism, productivity, self-employment and GDP growth.”

During the short-term three months training, the trainee will get a lump sum stipend.

“ISTE proposes to set up one VTSDC in every northeastern state in the first phase by 2011. In the northeast centres focus would to provide training on value addition of bamboo, car driving and solar technology,” said Singh, who is also the director of Karnataka NIT.

Agartala NIT’s director P.K. Bose said initially up to Class 5 primary school (Kendriya Vidyalaya) would be set up and in each class the intake of students would be 60.

“As part of NIT’s educational social responsibility, the primary school is being set up to provide proper education to an individual from childhood to younger stage,” Bose said.