Jayalalithaa gives hi-tech push to education

Soon, students of the ten government engineering colleges in the state would be flying abroad for training, courtesy the state government. Hundred students would be selected from the ten government engineering colleges in the state each year and they would be sent on a 15-day industrial visit to foreign countries. Implemented at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore, the scheme would provide government engineering college students opportunities on par with private college students, added the Chief Minister, during the budget debate on registration department. 

Among the announcements were a coaching centre each for Indian Engineering Service Exam at Chennai, Dharmapuri, Coimbatore, Tiruchy and Tirunelveli districts at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and a video conferencing centre at the Directorate of Technical Education to help students attend special lectures of experts and professors. The government also proposed to construct a government arts and science college at Mettupalayam in Coimbatore and Perumbakkam in Kancheepuram at a cost of Rs 8.29 crore each  this year.

With the view to improving student-faculty interface, the government has proposed to establish a cloud computing centre, networking all universities with their affiliated colleges at an estimated cost of Rs 160 crore. The centre would be set up at Anna University and implemented in three years. The Chief Minister also announced a 5,000 -seat capacity auditorium to be constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore in Anna University, to conduct national and international symposiums.

In a bid to help people pursuing higher education through Tamil Nadu Open University, the state government has offered to establish two new zonal centres at Nilgiri and Villupuram districts at an estimated cost of Rs 12.5 crore. Likewise, Tamil Nadu Teacher’s University will offer four-year integrated B.A.,B.Ed. and B.Sc.,B.Ed from this year in tune with the 15 new courses introduced by National Council for Teacher Education. The Chief Minister exuded confidence that the announcements would improve the quality of higher education offered in the state. 

In a bid to curb the proxy ‘system’ and make marking of attendance more stringent for students and teachers in  government schools, the state has announced the introduction of biometric system in all government schools at a cost of Rs 45.57 crore. The stage government, which spent Rs 4,166 crore to upgrade infrastructure in government schools in the last five years, has allocated Rs 60.79 crore for this year. The government has also allocated Rs 11 crore to conduct competitions among school students to raise awareness on hygiene, gender equality, importance of educating girl child and Right to Education act. The amount would also be spent on painting subject-oriented images on classroom walls to better students’ understanding.