As part of the drive to promote government-people interaction in the State, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh digitally responded to queries relating to Skill Development on Saturday.
Out of about a thousand posers he responded to, the Chhattisgarh CM’s office apparently found a question asked by the digitalLEARNING magazine most relevant, as it chose to place the CM’s response to that query at the top of an official press release available on the portal www.cssda.cg.nic.in.
As digitalLEARNING sought to know the present status of teachers’ training in the State and the future plans, the Chief Minister replied that 1,32,000 teachers have already been imparted skill development training to improve their teaching skills, under the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Education Quality Campaign.
Dr Singh also stated that the State Government is mainly focusing on training of teachers at the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), District Institutions for Education and Training (DIET) and other private training institutions.
This online interaction with the public on Facebook platform also made Dr Singh the first Chief Minister in the country, who used social media to interact with people regarding the State Government’s schemes.
During the interactive session, the CM said that both the State and the Centre will work together in the direction of skill development. He informed that efforts are being made to bring government hospitals, government medical colleges, district hospitals, private medical colleges and private hospitals under this scheme, so that the youngsters interested in joining medical field can avail skill development training there.
Nearly 30,000 people viewed this online interaction programme on Facebook, out of which about 1,000 posted questions. Many of them also posted suggestions on Skill Development scheme. Dr Singh answered 70 questions in one hour and thanked the rest for their questions and suggestions. He stated that all the questions and suggestions have been noted, and these will be considered on a serious note.
A resident of California, USA, Ashish Pandey, who originally belongs to Kawardha district of Chhattisgarh, suggested Chief Minister, “In Chhattisgarh, there are a number of people, who do not hold formal degree or diploma, but they possess skills and talents. Under Skill Development scheme there has to be a knowledge exchange programme where people having formal education would be able to share their knowledge with the uneducated, and the uneducated ones with skills may share their expertise with the educated ones.”
Chief Minister, in response to the post, replied, “Chhattisgarh wishes ‘Jai Johar’ to California. I thank you for your valuable suggestion. Our Prime Minister is presently in your state (California) and he must be talking about nation’s skill development. Your suggestion is commendable. Thanks.”
The first question to Chief Minister was posted by Vishal Soni, who had asked about the places where skill development centres will be opened. On which Chief Minister had responded that skill development training under the scheme is provided by the registered Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) in all 27 districts of State. Any organisation interested in getting registered as VTP may contact District Collector’s Office or CSSDA Office in Byron Bazar Raipur. Further details are available on www.cssda.nic.in.
Chief Minister told him that total 2593 VTPs have been registered in Chhattisgarh till date. Besides, 84 ITIs, 18 polytechnics and three government engineering colleges have for also been marked conducting skill development training sessions in spare time.
It is noteworthy that skill development of youth has always been the top-priority for CM Dr Raman Singh. According to him, India is a young nation. Youth do not only need graduation degrees but also require skill development. To meet this requirement, State Government has given them legal right to skill development in the trade of their choice. To provide skill development training to youth of age group 18-45 years, State Government has registered 2593 institutions as VTPs, including 1671 government and 922 private organisations. Last year in 2014-15, more than one lakh youth were provided skill development training. This year, more than 47 thousand youth have already completed short-term skill development training courses in various trades to date.
