To achieve the goal of revamping the curriculum, we are urging all the colleges and universities to come up with a new and modern curriculum in their institutions, thus making the classes more interesting for the students to attend, says Shuchi Sharma, Secretary of Higher & Technical Education Department, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Kartik Sharma & Prathana Dutta of Elets News Network (ENN).

You have recently taken the position of Secretary, Higher Education and Technical Department, in the State of Rajasthan. How do you see this responsibility and are you looking forward to it?

It’s a great responsibility that I have been entrusted with and I feel though a lot has been done to give a good education system to the society still there is the scope of improvement. In fact, something needs to be done in a direction that emphasizes the evolution of the student as a good human being. Therefore, I believe somewhere a dent is needed in the fundamentals of the present education system to achieve this goal.

At the 15th World Education Summit Mumbai, you spoke on the concept of ‘Joy of Giving’. Could you share your insight on this concept and what is the need of such a concept in the Higher Education sector today?

Knowledge shared is knowledge gained. ‘Joy of Giving’ is the concept that is tied up to the innate nature, compassion and interdependence in human beings. It is a paradox that the more we acquire, the happier we become. In reality, acquiring more and more leads to discontentment and what we give to others is what makes us feel content. If we inculcate ‘Joy of Giving’ as an essential part of the school curriculum, we can teach the child to apply it in day-to-day activities, thereby crystallising the curriculum. A child who is a ‘giver’ is more beneficial to the society than an ‘acquirer’.

What is your vision in developing the higher education ecosystem in the state of Rajasthan?

Besides infrastructure, we need to focus on the syllabus and keep it from getting redundant. Irrelevant topics which are still taught in classes need to be removed. In case of a redundant syllabus, not only are teachers disinterested in teaching, even the students don’t turn up in lectures due to boredom. We need to move in the direction of upgrading the curriculum. To achieve this goal, we are urging all the colleges and universities to come up with a new and modern curriculum in their institutions, thus making the classes more interesting for the students to attend.

What measures are taken to enhance the quality and upgrading the curriculum of Technical Education in the state?

TEQIP (The Scheme of MHRD and World Bank) has provided Rs 10 crore to each engineering college of Rajasthan and Rs 20 crore to Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, for enhancement of quality and up gradation of curriculum of technical education.

In last few months, the department has arranged many training seminars, conferences for improvement of pedagogy and various latest equipment’s. About Rs 25 crore will be spent in current financial year on modern labs, computers and research facilities by which more than 10 thousand students of technical institutes will be benefitted with better facilities in education, research and consultancy.

What are the newly introduced schemes for Research and Development of the state in terms of technical education?

Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and semester system has been introduced in all departments of Rajasthan Technical University, Kota. This has been recognized by National Board of Accreditation, New Delhi.

• Uploading of university degrees on National Depository platform.
• Under RUSA Scheme of MHRD there is construction of cafeteria and books in library will be marked with radio frequency identification (RFI)

What initiatives have been undertaken by the department to make education sector vibrant and result-oriented?

With an objective to prepare good academicians, the department has started induction training programme for newly appointed assistant professors. Initiatives like free coaching classes for regular students of the colleges help the department in making education sector vibrant and result-oriented. Subject matter experts in the department are preparing e-content for these classes. The department is also opting for skill education initiatives along with regular studies to make students after their graduation and post- graduation degree.

Please provide a brief description about the administrative initiatives taken for smooth functioning of the department.

The review meetings with the concerned officials of the respective department on regular basis are among the major initiatives that helped in smooth functioning of the department. We have also installed Biometric attendance system for principals and professors. The OIC system installed in various colleges helps in monitoring the progress and problems of the colleges at CCE level.

What message would you like to give to the students?

My message to the students is that life is the most precious gift of God. It should be lived joyfully. For this, every moment should be lived creatively. We should not lose any opportunity to leave something new and go on contributing to building a healthy society.

Our priority is to make youth employable and to make the college campuses conducive for the holistic development of the students. Keeping this in focus many entrepreneurship and skill development programs are now being started and some of them are underway in colleges, says Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Minister for Higher Education, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN).

What has been your top most priority as Minister of Higher Education?

Our priority is the holistic development of the students. We want the State Higher Education to reach the level where it can match the Global standards. We want our students to grow in an environment where they can become job oriented and are capable of getting jobs globally.

The Government is endeavouring in this direction through its scheme and programmes for students so that they can get career and job oriented opportunities as employment is the major challenge for the youth. We do not want to create just graduates or postgraduates; in fact, we want skillful graduates and postgraduates who can sustain in the fast-changing global world and economy.

What policies and new initiatives have been undertaken by the Government in the last 6-7 months?

Our priority is to make youth employable, and to make the environment conducive for the holistic development of the students. Keeping this in focus, many entrepreneurship and skill development programmes are now being started and some of them are in progress in colleges. We aim to make students employable along with learning which can help them in the creative utilisation of their time and money. Our summer camp programme “Kaushal Unnayan” has met with great success which was organised in 163 government colleges of the State in June.

We have initiated the process of making college campuses secure, safe and free for the girl students. Girls mentoring cells and internal complaint committees have been set up so that our daughters feel safe and secure when they are away from home. Many programmes are organised by our colleges to train girls in self defence.

To promote education in the state, the government has opened 50 new colleges and now we can boast that not a single subdivision in the state is without a college. This shows our determination towards making education accessible to all.

To encourage physically challenged students, our Chief Minister has announced higher education scholarship which is a valuable contribution and help to the students.

What specific has been done for the betterment of the education ecosystem?

Our Government is dedicated towards improving the quality of higher education, its development and creating a healthy educational environment in the state.

For this, CM Ashok Gehlot had announced the Resource Assistance and College with Excellence (RACE) for all the colleges. Under this, one college from each district has been nominated as ‘nodal’ and a total of 33 district resource aid committees have been formulated. Through this initiative, we are promoting the process of resource redistribution in the state education system and kick-starting a new chapter of development of the colleges.

Besides, for the first time, we are going to conduct the annual auditing of all the government colleges under Annual Auditing Programme, which was again announced in the budget speech by the Chief Minister. This initiative would be a great tool in monitoring the performance and development of the colleges.

Technology is taking over education in a grand manner. What are the technological initiatives in pipeline that can empower the weaker section?

We are going to start an online 24*7 Quick Response System (QRS) scheme to answer the queries of the students on a real-time basis. It is specifically been created for the students who belong to the weaker section of the society and cannot afford to attend expensive coaching classes. Moreover, an application has been created for the Universities through which helpline facility for students, monitoring the academic & extracurricular activities of universities, the transmission of orders, and overseeing the work of district resource committees.

We are heavily focusing on imparting employment-related training to students while they are still studying. For this, we have collaborated with Rajasthan Skill and Livelihood Development Corporation (RSLDC). Under this, we will be rendering 39 regular courses for skill development in selected government colleges. 25 Language Labs are being planned to be established in the selected government colleges to help students in grasping the requisite language skills for acquiring jobs in the future.

Interpersonal skills are expected to become more sought after; It may so happen that your employability skills get you your dream job rather than your technical ability, writes Debajyoti Mohanty of Elets News Network (ENN).

With technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) disrupting the market, the nature of human work is changing and so are the rules of employment. Jobs of the future will require high levels of social and emotional intelligence, critical thinking and problem solving capabilities, also known as employability skills.

Language skills and cross-cultural awareness have become very important as the world is becoming increasingly connected and people coming from different cultures now work towards a common goal. On the other hand, skills like creativity, negotiation and collaborative problem solving can make one flexible enough to adapt to the rapidly changing employment scenario.

Technology can automate routine, rule-based kinds of tasks, but it cannot carry out human functions such as showing empathy, making somebody feel understood, knowing how to define and solve complex, ambiguous problems. Interpersonal skills that can only be performed by humans are expected to become more sought after. It may so happen that your employability skills get you your dream job rather than your technical ability.

In this environment of uncertainty, looking towards universities to produce human resources with the right kind of skills is no longer the norm. Today’s graduates are entering into a fiercely competitive job market which can be characterised by highly disruptive and fast-evolving trends. With rising university fees and shrinking returns, investing in getting a formal degree has also become debatable.

Empirical data seems to suggest that employers are open to recruiting graduates for jobs outside their specialisms. The reason being that these graduates themselves are following their interests instead of sticking with the choices made by them at the ages of 16 and 18. There should be nothing strange in the idea of an engineer doing an administrative job or an art student going into sales and marketing. Except for the medical profession, which involves a strict routine of accountability, most career paths are open to lateral entry.

Employers want graduate freshers to be better prepared for the workplace. Therefore the universities now have a mandate to produce graduates who are responsive, have a good understanding of how the industry functions, and are ready to face constant change.

To measure employability, the emphasis is being put on the university’s ability to get its graduates employed in the discipline of their qualification. Instead, the focus should be more on building career foundations rather than finding jobs. Clarity regarding career paths and the exchange of knowledge between academia and industry would go a long way in addressing this issue.

Skilling programs are one way to achieve this, but building the whole program structure without the intervention of employers would make it redundant. When it comes to improving employability, academia and industry are working in silos, at large. Convergence between the two happens at the end but the collaboration is lacking during the journey. This is why graduates have almost zero industry knowledge at the end of their degree program.

In the current market, employers do not desire changes in higher education as it involves a risk of losing specialists. On the other hand, employers want the educators to focus more on providing skill sets required by the industry including soft communication, problem-solving and analytical skills. According to some studies, more than half of the fresh graduates in management and engineering are considered unemployable by the industry because they lack the skill sets required, despite having specialised knowledge. In such a scenario, the students need better career counselling so that they can work on their strengths and also gain essential skills required for different sectors.

‘Skill gap’ is often a complaint, but graduates have to face an ‘experience gap’ in reality. It is so because most employers prefer to hire young people who have spent a few years in the industry instead of hiring fresh graduates. The need of the hour is for academia to recognise employability as an important objective and make flexible changes to accommodate direct industrial instruction and discovery learning. Integrating life skills in education degrees, facilitating on the job training, internships and apprenticeships are the front-foot steps for improving employability.

We have not yet found the right way of going from education to employment but the parameters involved are becoming increasingly clear. The need of the hour is a collaboration between educators, employers, administration, youth and parents, working together to change the entire ecosystem – perception, attitude, policies, and the approach to education as well as employer’s investment in employees.

Rajasthan is proving to be a breeding ground for entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers where millions of young minds with new ideas, and support from the government are ready to take on the future roadmap, writes Reetika Bose of Elets News Network (ENN).

Ranked at the second position in the School Education Quality Index, 2019, the state of Rajasthan has pulled itself from the 26th position to the second spot. All thanks to the reforms, initiatives, merging of schools, teachers- students average in classrooms, availability of subject teachers in schools to be the key drivers of quality education in the state of Rajasthan.

Quality education is the aim and with this objective, the state of Rajasthan has revamped the educational structure with new innovations, programmes and schemes in response to the aspirations of its young population for greater economic and social mobility associated with higher and technical education. The education landscape of Rajasthan reflects that along with quantitative expansion the thrust is on qualitative aspects.

The departments associated with the education in the state are committed to promote holistic learning amongst youths of Rajasthan so as to enable them to lead meaningful lives in the society. Every department is keen to develop the requisite capacity and capability of youngsters that will lead to development of the nation.

THE VISION

The Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan focuses on nurturing the employable, positive and aspirational generation of lifelong learners. Such traits help the youths of the state to sustain in this competitive and quality conscious era of globalisation.

In order to make the youth employable and to make the college campuses conducive for the holistic development of the students, the Department of Higher and Technical Education in Rajasthan has several key areas of concern that need to be addressed are quality education, accessibility, facilities and employability. These are the key drivers for the enhancement of education in the state.

THE MISSION

The Rajasthan Government’s mission is to develop a higher and technical education system in the state that strives for excellence in quality, easily accessible to every section of the society, and produces skillful human resource that can stand up to the challenges of the changing times.

Easy access to higher education opportunities will enable students to develop knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their professional goals, improve the productivity of their organisations and provide leadership and service to their communities.

The Government, with such a higher education system, wants to ensure that it is open to all and does not discriminate an individual on the basis of religion, caste, gender, physical or financial conditions. An education system that churns out social thinkers, scientists, inventors, innovators, artistes, players, motivators of highest quality is the need of the hour.

The system has its focus on enhancement of quality of teaching and research at par with the global standards through revision of curriculum, syllabus, teaching-learning material, text books, pedagogical processes and ICT in education.

To improve the quality of all Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), benchmarking will be done through The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and through National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

Rajasthan endeavours to put in place such an education system that could support and sustain India’s undeniable status of an emerging economic power.

HIGHER EDUCATION- THE MUCH NEEDED REFORMS

With an aim to make students employable along with learning, many entrepreneurship programmes are now being started and some of them are in progress in colleges, with an which can help them in the creative utilisation of their time and money.

• The Pratiyogita Dakshta Program is one classic example of how the state of Rajasthan is gradually expanding to add the state’s youth other than the students for providing free coaching for the competitive exams.
• The talk of the town is the new innovative program which is the ‘Idea Bank’, where ideas are sought from the faculty and other stakeholders in the higher education domain. Eventually, the best idea will be evaluated and implement them in the higher education ecosystem of the state.
• Resource Assistance and College with Excellence (RACE) – The scheme has been initiated for the colleges and by the colleges. It involves redistribution of resources at local level and it is improving the condition of colleges that lack resources.
• The summer camp programme “Kaushal Unnayan” has met with great success which was organised in 163 government colleges of the State in June.
• Student-centric Learning and Capacity Enhancement Programme is helping students to improve their learning (academics) as well as get hands-on experience in industry- relevant skills.
• Rajasthan State Higher Education Council (RSHEC) formed for planning, monitoring and evaluating quality assurance in higher education.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION- SETTING A BENCHMARK

The state of Rajasthan, with a vision to impart high quality technical education to all the sections of the society is gearing up with new reforms and initiatives to enhance the competitiveness of the state’s technical manpower to global standards.

• For improving the quality of technical education, a committee is formed for National Board Accreditation (NBA) accreditation of at least one branch in each of the Technical Institutes in the State.
• To enhance the training for the teachers, faculty development programmes are organised by the Rajasthan Government. In Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, about 60 FDP programmes, workshops and trainings, 3 international seminar and state level smart India Hackathon will be organized.
• A new Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS) was started by AICTE New Delhi in which about 2 to 5 research projects were submitted by the staff of engineering colleges of Rajasthan. Among them 84 projects are sanctioned by AICTE, which is the highest in India. In this scheme, provisions were made of 10 crore for 11 Engineering colleges in Rajasthan, out of which 25% amount has been transferred to Engineering Colleges.
• For quality improvement, engineering colleges have applied in 49 branches to National Board Accreditation by preparing self-appraisal reports. Training will be organised for students of engineering colleges by using business analytics softwares. Students will be given special training of GATE, on employability skills and summer Internship by prominent IIT/ NIT.
• The AICTE has prepared guidelines for the recruitment of principals of engineering colleges, strictly adhering and transparency in recruitment process. Similarly guidelines will also be prepared for the recruitment of assistants, associates and professors.
• The Rajasthan Technical University, Kota is going to set up a modern research hub in which many facilities for modern technology like performance computing facilities, solar energy system, CAD/CAM, 3d printer and other software will be available.
• TEQIP (The Scheme of MHRD and World Bank) has provided 10 crore to each engineering college of Rajasthan and 20 crore to Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, for enhancement of quality and up gradation of curriculum of technical education.
• Strengthening the placement of students for which IIICELL (Industry Institute Interaction Cell) has been set up.
• Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and semester system has been introduced in all departments of Rajasthan Technical University, Kota. This has been recognised by National Board of Accreditation, New Delhi.

EMPLOYABILITY OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS

With an aim to provide maximum job opportunities to the students, the department of higher & technical education is striving to do various good practices like conducting job fairs, connecting students with potential buyers, etc. Ensuring job placements to students, on campus or of campus, is one of our major targets.

CENTRE FOR ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE (CEG)

With an aim to create industry employable IT professionals by arranging seminars lectures, vocational training, and industry relevant software training, the government has appointed Centre for Electronic Governance (CEG) as nodal agency for state level Central Placement Cell (CPC). Rajasthan is the second state in the country to be running this kind of a program after the highly acclaimed ‘Jawahar Knowledge centre’ in Andhra Pradesh.

The main objective of CEG is to provide opportunities of employment to students of Engineering /polytechnic colleges. More than 400 students are placed in various industries to this day. CPC has targeted more than 1000 students for providing employment and training with collaboration of Rajasthan Skill Development Department, RSLDC and Local Administrative Department.

Guidance and careers cell are formed in each of the technical institutes of Rajasthan for students. About 149 lecturers of Engineering / Polytechnic colleges have been trained in robotics and 3D printing under faculty development programme by CEG. Also, students of Polytechnic colleges were trained in AutoCAD and Robotics by TTC and LRDC, Jodhpur.

RUSA EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS). Launched in 2013, it aims to provide strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions. The central funding (in the ratio of 60:40 for general category States, 90:10 for special category states and 100% for union territories) would be norm based and outcome dependent.

GOVERNMENT EMPOWERING THE MARGINALISED SECTION

For those who belong to the weaker section of the society and cannot afford to attend expensive coaching classes, the government is going to start an online 24*7 Quick Response System (QRS) scheme to answer the queries of the students on a real-time basis. Besides, an application has been created for the universities through which helpline facility for students, monitoring the academic & extracurricular activities of universities, the transmission of orders, and overseeing the work of district resource committees.

MUKHYMANTRI YUVA KAUSHAL YOJNA – SKILLING THE FUTURE OF TOMORROW

A number of students in colleges are interested in embracing a skill for their future. Likewise, the government is providing employment related training to those who are still studying.

To fulfill their need and in consideration of their job opportunities in the market, the department in collaboration with RSLDC has developed 39 skill training courses. The RSLDC has granted Rs 3 crores from its regular budget to start MYKY for training more than 7,500 regular students from 118 government colleges. The students will be given job oriented training for 200- 350 hours. This will enhance their performance and eventually job opportunities.

Likewise attempts are being made to affiliate all the government colleges with the Rajasthan Skill University in order to have opportunities for all the students of these colleges in getting diploma after being trained. This will definitely benefit a large section of the regular students studying in government colleges. For this, the government has collaborated with Rajasthan Skill and Livelihood Development Corporation (RSLDC). Under this, 34 regular courses for skill development will be rendered in selected government colleges. 25 Language Labs are being planned to be established in the selected government colleges to help students in grasping the requisite language skills for acquiring jobs in the future.

THE FINAL DESTINATION FOR EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Addressing the major challenge of unemployment among the Rajasthan’s youth, The state is focused on the various aspects for the betterment of higher and technical education system. The department is planning to help in establishing universities and colleges of global repute and appointment of skilled facilities along with a good support staff.

With innovative strategies and the zeal to develop the institute of excellence, the state of Rajasthan is indeed proving to be a breeding ground for entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers. Millions of young minds with new ideas, and support from the government will make the state ready to take on the startup drive in the future.