Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy affirmed his government’s commitment to revamp technical education skilling the students to compete at the international level, and sought the engineering colleges to change their approach to send out skilled students instead of mere graduates with engineering degrees.
Mr. Reddy assured that the fee reimbursement dues, a legacy of the previous government, would be settled in due course. However, he assured the managements that payments would be cleared on time from this year. He said that IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu would ensure this. He reminded that the Congress government under late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy had started this unique scheme for the first time.
The Chief Minister was speaking at an interaction programme with college managements on quality engineering education at JNTU-H on Saturday. Minister D. Sridhar Babu and Principal Secretary to Government Burra Venkatesham were among present.
He agreed that there were issues of seat conversion between branches but said all engineering disciplines, including civil and mechanical engineering, should be encouraged alongside computer science. The colleges must continue non-computer science courses as the country would be in need of those engineers as well.
Emphasising on skilling students to compete at the international level, Mr. Reddy said his government was setting up a Skill University on the lines of the Indian School of Business with independent decision-making powers to alter the courses as per the changing needs in the sector. After IT, Artificial Intelligence is poised to lead globally and our students should be equipped with those skills.
As part of skill development, he said the government is revamping the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) with a ₹2,400 crore investment in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services.
