The Special Officer of Madurai Kamaraj University, R. Jayaraman, has been nominated as member of the State Planning Commission's steering committee for education and sports that would formulate the Twelfth Five-Year Plan.
The university authorities received the official communication here on Thursday with the State Planning Commission Member Secretary K. Dhanavel informing about the constituting of steering committee and other members nominated to that panel. University sources said that that the steering committee would prepare the 12th Five-Year Plan Document (2012-17) and submit a report to the State government after holding a thorough discussion with stakeholders in education and sports.
E. Balagurusamy, Member, State Planning Commission, is the Chairman of that Steering Committee.
Dr. Jayaraman, who has been spearheading the entrepreneurship development initiatives of the university, said that the working group on higher education was expected to hold discussions with the stakeholders and prepare a document for the five-year plan. “The steering committee has been asked to submit its report latest by December 10 this year. A lot of changes are expected in the plan document for the education sector. Some new approaches have to be thought of in the field of education based on current requirements,” he said.
Some of the other members in the steering committee are K. Muthuchelian, Vice-Chancellor of Periyar University, Salem, and Walter Devaram, former Director General of Police.
Former hockey player V. Baskaran and J. C. D. Prabhakaran of Tamil Nadu Chess Association figure in the list of persons nominated in the steering committee for education and sports.
Dr. Muthuchelian, who was earlier Head of School of Energy, Environment and Natural Resources at the MKU, said that the State Planning Commission's communication had delved on the role of steering committee for preparing an effective plan for various sectors. “It will cover all components such as school education and youth welfare. The role of the committee has been clearly spelt out.” Secretaries of various State government departments are ex-officio members of the committee.
A regional consultative meeting of the State Planning Commission was hosted by the university in Madurai on September 8 where Dr. Balagurusamy had heard ideas and inputs from higher education stakeholders in southern districts as part of the preparation exercise for the 12th Five-Year Plan document.
