Rajasthan Government, in line with its vision of bringing the education sector at par to the global standards, is adopting latest innovations and practices across the State’s educational ecosystem. Pradeep Kumar Borad, Commissioner, College Education and Special Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Rajasthan, throws light on such initiatives in an interview with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN).
What is your approach to initiate new plans in higher education sector of Rajasthan?
I wish to initiate innovations and reforms with the resources available in the system without any complain about lacking of resources. I am fortunate that I am dealing with three components of education that are College, School, Sanskrit education, therefore I always try to link innovations and reform with the students and youth studying in schools and colleges. That is the reason why I initiated Bal Sabha programme in school education which I conceived almost one and a half decade ago. This idea has now flourished across state with full support of government departments and public. This program is aiming to assure holistic development of child involving community, especially parents to watch over the performance of Institutions and receiving by their wards. Similarly in college education, I am focusing on multifold task to create vibrations among higher education Institution such as:
• Fixing on students welfare centric programs
• Promoting environment for quality education
• Involving community through alumni meet
• Increasing faculty members to contribute their best for the excellence of Institution
• Focusing on better infrastructure and faculty in colleges
What are your success stories in past six months?
I would like to explain the success stories point wise:
• On-time commencement of new academic session after the interval of almost two decades
• Conducting state level GK competition for collegiate view on 13th July 2019
• Free Genral Knowledge books distribution to college students. Distribution of approximately 2 lakhs books is being done since 26th January 2019.
• Free coaching classes to college students since 12th June 2019 and more than 5400 students have been registered.
• Monthly test for regular studies to improvise writing skills, writing appropriate answers and midterm assessments before appearing into University examinations. For the first time in the history of college education, an exam without invigilator in the examination hall was conducted which was an experiment to let the student learn the lessons of honesty, self-discipline and confidence.
• To create a unique identity for the department, we have first time created a logo of the department with the motto “Gyan Se Seva ki Oar”.
What are your plans for the department?
We have targeted to ensure maximum attendance of students in colleges and to ensure the best of facilities for students so that a positive environment towards education gets created in the state and these government colleges get more recognition in the state. Secondly, we want to make our students excel in sports. To ensure the development of sports skills in our students the department has introduced program ‘Arjun Drishti’ and to regularise the sports activities in colleges we have launched an annual sports calendar for all the government colleges in state. It is very important in terms of overall development of students. We aim to create lively environment in the colleges so that students and their parents like to visit the colleges.
Also Read: What ails and what spurs higher education system in India?
What are your plans to provide employment opportunities to the students?
We want to provide maximum job opportunities to the students. For that we are aiming to do various good practices like conducting job fairs, connecting students with potential employers, etc. Ensuring job placements of students, on campus or off campus, is one of our major targets. We are running a program ‘Praiyogita Dakshta’ to provide free coaching for competitive exams to the students of government colleges.
What are the new initiatives by your department?
As I mentioned earlier, the Pratiyogita Dakshta program is up and running very successfully, we are gradually trying to expand this program so that we may add the state’s youth other then these students also in this program of giving free coaching for competitive exams. Arjun Drishti, as I said earlier is one crucial program for creating an environment for sports in the colleges.
One new innovative program which we are planning is ‘Idea Bank’. In this program we are seeking ideas from the faculty and other stakeholders of higher education domain. We will evaluate the best of the ideas and will implement them in the higher education ecosystem of the state. The department is reaching to colleges to collect maximum ideas. We are engaging the current and retired teachers of universities and colleges to voluntarily teaching our students. This way we will be able to take help of the vast experience and pool of knowledge that these teachers possess.
What are your future targets to improve higher education in the state?
We are focusing on quality education to all. The department is providing required infrastructure and other facilities to students to make campuses cordial for their development. We are organising alumni meet and dialogue with parents to increase public participation in education. We are promoting innovations in teaching to prepare students for future.
