PM asks CMS for opening education infrastructure after class hours

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Keen to scale up the skill development among the youths in the country Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Chief Ministers to consider opening up public education infrastructure, after class hours, for skill development.

This can lead to dramatically scale up of skill development where skill developers in the private sector would be able to provide training at cheaper costs and spread skill development to all parts of the country, Dr Singh wrote to the CMs. There were over 2,00,000 educational institutions that could be transformed into skill development centres immediately without affecting formal educational transactions that happen during class hours, he suggested.

He said India was house for largest youth population in the world and the country were to invest adequately in their education and employability. It would not just empower the youth but make India shape the emerging world order, he said.

''Turning the advantage of our young population to become the largest pool of technically trained manpower in the world is one of the most significant policy initiatives that need to be taken collectively by the Central and the State Governments today. Some believed that India has the capacity to create 500 million certified and skilled technicians by 2022 and this would provide access to the youth the employment opportunities powered by economic growth,'' he remarked.

Though it was an ambitious target the goal must be set for the country which had finalized the institutional arrangements setting up a National Council for skill development headed by him for coordinated action by the Planning Commission.

He said a plan for skill development must begin with increasing investments in education.'' You would have noticed that the Central Government had sought converting 11th Plan largely into a national plan for education with the gross budgetary support to education being raised from 7.68 per cent in the Tenth Plan to 19 per cent in the Eleventh Plan.

The actual outlays have been increased five-fold and now stand at Rs.2,75,000 crore. This investment will be used to provide universal elementary education of quality, support a new focus for secondary education and generate a second wave of major investment in higher education with the setting up of several institutions of higher learning, including 30 new Central Universities , eight Indian Institutes of Technology and seven Indian Institutes of Management. This investment in education would be complementary to the proposed action for skill development, he said.

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