Information and Public Relations Department, Chandigarh, Punjab,January 5: Fulfilling the promise of the Punjab Government to provide technicaleducation in the mother tongue to the children of the state, the books of 16different trades of technical education have been translated into Punjabi andwork is underway to translate books of other 25 different trades intoPunjabi. At the same time, the PunjabGovernment has sent question bank of more than 25000 questions in Punjabilanguage to DGT, Government of India to send question papers in Punjabi to thestudents of the state. Earlier the question papers were sent to the technicaleducation students by the union government only in English and Hindi, whichmade it very difficult for the youth of the state to understand and solve them.
The Punjab Technical Education and Industrial TrainingMinister Mr. Charanjit Singh Channi disclosed this here today during a pressconference at Punjab Bhawan in the presence of Mr. Anurag Verma PrincipalSecretary, Technical Education, Mr. Kumar Saurab Dirtector Technical Education.He said that the state government has announced the development of the Punjabilanguage, on International Mother Language Day. He said that although it wasjust a beginning, the complete syllabus in reference books of most of thecolleges would be prepared and made available to the students in Punjabi.
The Minister also announced to set up two state CampusUniversities at Gurdaspur and Ferozpour. A MoU has been signed with IIT Roparto improve the quality of education in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College ofEngineering and Technology Ferozepur and Beant College of Engineering andTechnology Gurdaspur. IIT Ropar has been made its mentor and a bill to makethese two colleges campus universities would be introduced in the assembly inthe next budget session.
He further said that state of art Dr BR Ambedkar Instituteof Management, which will be at the national level, is being opened at Dr. IKGPTU at Kapurthala. The Mentor Institute of this institute would be IIM,Amritsar. Further the number of seats for admission in Government IndustrialTraining Institutes was around 23000 to 24000 for the last 10 years.
Briefing about the achievements of the Technical EducationDepartment, Punjab the Minister said that many revolutionary steps have beentaken to bring a sweeping improvement in the quality of education in thegovernment polytechnics of the state and large-scale action has been takenagainst organizations found guilty of mass copying during exams. To preventcopying during examinations, cameras have been installed in the examinationcentres in all the institutions across the state and 40 percent cameras havebeen connected online with the headquarters and the process of connecting othercameras is underway. He said that cameras have been installed in 25 governmentpolytechnics and 114 government industrial training institutes.
'These reforms have enhanced the credibility of the peoplein the government technical education institutes which has resulted in87-percent in the enrolment in the government polytechnic colleges andindustrial training institutes in the state. However, during the previousgovernment, the enrolment percentage was very low' added Channi.
Talking about the unique initiative of the state GovernmentMr. Channi said that the CM Scholarship Scheme was introduced in the GovernmentPolytechnic Colleges of the state during 2017-18 under the leadership of theChief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh. The objective of this scheme was toencourage meritorious students towards government polytechnic colleges underwhich students are being given scholarships according to the percentage ofmarks, those with higher percentages would get more scholarships. With theimplementation of this scheme, about 2900 students enrolled in governmentpolytechnic colleges have more than 60 percent marks. In the year 2016-17,there were only 1600 students with more than 60 percent marks in governmentpolytechnics.
He further said that a Skill University is being set up atChamkaur Sahib under the first phase of which IKG PTU Kapurthala has sanctionedRs. 120 crore for setting up of Skill College. The tender for this work hasbeen issued by the PWD and the construction of this college would be completedthis year by working on a war footing.
Mr. Channi said that the seats have doubled in the ITIs ofthe state as large number of students were not able to get admissions in ITIcourses. Last year alone, about 70,000 students were applied for admission ingovernment ITIs, of which 47,000 were left disappointed. This year the numberof seats has been increased to 37996 which are more than 60% in one year.Thanks to the initiative of the present Government of Punjab, many poorstudents will be able to get vocational skills at a government fee of Rs. 3400.
The Department has also taken a morale booster step for thegood performers as letters of appreciation were given by the PrincipalSecretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training to 20 heads ofGovernment Industrial Training Institutes of the state who ensured 100%enrolment by increasing the capacity of the institute by more than 50%.Similarly, the admission of the SC students has increased from 10979 in lastyear to 16646 students this year hence more SC students will be able to getfree vocational skills.
The Minister said that the Dual System of Training (DST) wasintroduced in ITIs to make industrial training institutes. Under this system,the students get theoretical training in ITI for six months and learn practicaltraining in the industry for six months. This year 413 units have been rununder DST and more than 8500 students will get benefits. Under this scheme, MOUhas been signed with Hero Cycle, Trident Limited, Avon Cycle, Swaraj EngineLimited, Mahindra & Mahindra, Federal Mogul Patiala, Godrej & BoyceLimited, Mohali, International Tractors Limited (SNL), Eutectic IndustryLudhiana, Punjab Alkalies & Chemical Limited, Lakme India Ltd., HotelHyatt, Hotel Taj etc. Two years ago, about half of the courses were affiliatedwith the State Council for Vocational Training (SCVT). The certificates wererecognized only in the state of Punjab. Over the past 15 months, the governmenthas affiliated with the National Council for Vocational Education and Training(NCVET). These CVET Certificates are recognized not only in the country but in160 countries all over the world. In 2018, only 12750 students got NCVETcertificates, while 33635 NCVET certificates will be received in this session(increase of more than 160%).
The state government has set up four new ITIs at Singhpura,Malaud, Adampur and Manakpur Sharif and given sanction to start 19 new ITIs atvarious places in the state. Out of these 19 ITIs, civil works have beenstarted at 11 places and work at other places will be started very soon. Sportsstadiums at a cost of Rs 3 crore and auditoriums at Tripuri and Adampur at acost of about Rs. 15 crore are also being constructed.
During Covid, 20 lakh masks were prepared by the students ofthe department under the Mission Fateh by the department. To make masks, peopledonated clothes which were distributed free of cost to the poor and healthworkers. In addition, online education was implemented effectively during theCovid. Virtual classes were held at Zoom and lectures were given instead ofjust distributing training materials.