Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 19: N N Vohra, Governor, and Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister, today reiterated the necessity of making educational institutions centres of diverse studies, adding that foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, French and German need to be introduced in the universities to create avenues of employment for the youth of the State within and outside the country.
The Governor and the Chief Minister were reviewing the progress of Kashmir University at its Council meeting held at Raj Bhavan here today.
The Governor and the Chief Minister emphasized the need for taking best advantage of the UGC sponsored and Centrally aided schemes to upgrade faculties, infrastructure facilities and development of human resources. They said that there is ample requirement of trained and qualified youth in the job market, as such the endeavours of higher educational institutions should be to work towards this end and produce human resource equipped with required knowledge and skills to compete successfully at the national and international levels.
The Governor and the Chief Minister observed that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir are second to none in talent, caliber and capacity. They further observed that the youth of the State have proved their mettle in all spheres of human endeavour in the past and are capable of performing even better when provided enabling opportunities.
The Governor, while appreciating the MoUs entered into by the university with the various institutions within and outside the State, urged the Vice Chancellor to explore the possibility of entering into similar kind of arrangements with the corporate sector so that the students passing out could be suitably exposed and enhance their prospects for better job prospects.
While reviewing the sports and extra-curricular activities being undertaken by the University, the Governor observed that J&K is bestowed with beautiful lakes and rivers which provide excellent opportunities for the promotion of watermanship among youth and involving them in varied water sports activities. In this context, he suggested the introduction of NCC in the university, particularly to set up an NCC Naval Wing to exploit the potential of water sports.
The Chief Minister emphasized on introduction of market oriented subjects in the higher educational institutions asking universities to play an important role in creating skilled human resource which could get easily absorbed in the job market.
Mr. Omar Abdullah said that the State Government has flagged employment generation as the most important concern in the development policy. He said that under a multi-pronged strategy employment opportunities for youth are being created by enhancing their employability and upgrading skills as per job market requirement. He asked the universities to be an important part in this stupendous task and produce human resource qualified to shoulder present and future responsibilities successfully.
Abdul Gani Malik, Minister for Higher Education, put forth various suggestions for improving quality of teaching and research on sustainable basis and making the universities and other institutions of higher education in the State centres of excellence.
Prof. Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir, in his comprehensive power point presentation, dwelt on the status of various ongoing research projects and those in the pipeline, achievements of the university in varied fields since the last meeting of the Council, various courses introduced and the conferences and other events organized etc.
The meeting discussed agenda items and took decisions thereon.
Among other members of the University Council, the meeting was attended by Prof. M. P. S. Ishar, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu; R. P. Aggarwal, formerly Secretary, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development; M. I. Khandey, Principal Secretary, Finance; Navin K. Choudhary, Principal Secretary to the Governor; Gazzanfar Hussain, Commissioner/Secretary, Higher Education and Prof. S. Fayyaz Ahmad, Registrar, University of Kashmir.
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