Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday unveiled 12 new proposals including establishing training centres to prepare engineering students for Indian Engineering Service Examinations, offering study tours in foreign universities or colleges for 100 students every year and launching of four-year integrated B.Ed courses.
In a suo motu statement in the Assembly, she said training centres for Indian Engineering Examinations would be set up in Chennai, Dharmapuri, Coimbatore, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said many private engineering colleges sent their students to foreign universities for a short-term training programme. “It is my aim to ensure that such opportunities are provided to the students of government engineering colleges as well,” she said. Towards this end, every year, 100 students from 10 government engineering colleges would be sent to foreign universities or colleges for a 15-day study programme. The proposal would involve an annual recurring expenditure of Rs. 1.50 crore.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the government has decided to establish a video conferencing centre at a cost of Rs. 75 lakh at the Directorate of Technical Education to enable students to listen to great teachers of higher education and industrial experts.
Another proposal mooted by her is establishing a product “non-destructive testing” training centre at the government polytechnic in Madurai at a cost of Rs. 1 crore. Every year, 100 students will be trained at the centre.
The Chief Minister said two more centres of the Tamil Nadu Open University would be launched in Villupuram and Nilgiris. The allocation for the projects is Rs. 12.50 crore.
Further, taking a cue from the National Teacher Education Council which had started 15 new courses, the Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University would offer four-year integrated BA., B.Ed and BSc., B.Ed courses.
Hospital in MKU The Chief Minister also announced a proposal to establish a multi-specialty hospital in Madurai Kamaraj University at a cost of Rs. 4.75 crore. The hospital, she said, would benefit not only the students, teachers and employees of the university, but people of around 100 villages. An indoor stadium and a library would also be constructed at a cost of Rs. 6.75 crore. Solar power, ground water harvesting and Wi-Fi facility would be created at a cost of Rs. 5 core. The facilities in hostel would be improved at a cost of Rs. 1 crore.
