Mail to CMO: looking out for all of Orissa in the HRD front
April 11th, 2007
Dear esteemed Chief minister:We really appreciate the various initiatives taken by your government in regards to higher education, technical education and medical education during the last couple of years. Just to recount some of them:
(i) NISER, Bhubaneswar
(ii) IIIT, Bhubaneswar
(iii) Ravenshaw University, Cuttack
(iv) Utkal University of Culture, Bhubaneswar
(v) Vedanta University, Puri
(vi) Ravishankar University, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack
(vii) ICFAI University, Bhubaneswar
(viii) Upgrading capital hospital to a medical college, Bhubaneswar
(ix) Orissa School of Mines, Keonjhar
Among the above list, except the last one all others are centered around Bhubaneswar/CTC/Puri. Bhubaneswar is the capital of Orissa and the above will go a long way to make greater Bhubaneswar a knowledge hub. Many of us are from greater Bhubaneswar and support all or most of the above. However, we would like you to also pay attention to other parts of Orissa as well as to the existing universities. In this regards we request that you immediately pursue the following:
(a) Establishing government medical colleges in Baripada-Balasore area and in KBK area.
(b) Vigorously pursuing a multi-campus KBK central university, and until that happens creating a state funded KBK university with campuses across KBK.
(c) Upgrading UCE Burla to an engineering and science university at par with Bengal Engineering and science University and Cochin University of Science and Technology.
(d) Making sure that the recently established universities across Orissa such as North Orissa U, Fakirmohan U, BPUT, Utkal Univ of Culture and Ravenshaw U all get the “Funded by UGC” tag at the earliest so that they can get more and sustained UGC funding. For that you may consider hiring a accomplished and well respected administrator for a newly created position of VC of Orissa University System with his/her main job to get the above tag and get outside funding for the universities. In the same vein, please make efforts to bring back the old glory of Utkal, Sambalpur and Berhempur universities.
(e) Steering and cajoling some of the companies with plants and mining leases to develop higher education opportunities, engineering colleges and medical colleges outside CTC/BBSR/Puri. Such areas include Koraput, Jeypore, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Jharsuguda, Kalinganagar, Paradeep, Bhawanipatna, Titlagarh, Balangir, Phulbani, Anugul, Baripada, Keonjhar, Barbil, Gopalpur etc.
(f) Pursuing with public sector companies that use our mines to establish medical colleges and engineering colleges in areas of their operation. This includes SAIL Rourkela, Mahanadi Coal Fields, NTPC, NALCO, and Orissa Mining corporation. In this regard, please note that Bokaro steel plant (a unit of SAIL) has agreed with Jharkhand Government to set up an engineering college and medical college in Bokaro.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070226/asp/jamshedpur/story_7441681.asp
(g) Please speed up the establishment of the proposed National Law Institute in Orissa. Already 6 such institutes are there in other states and according to
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1056807
the HRD ministry in Delhi called the directors of the existing National Law Institutes for discussing a common entrance exam. Very soon these established ones may start getting sizable central funding and if we delay, we will miss the bus.
sincerely,
Entry Filed under: Culture University, Bhubaneswar, Fakirmohan University, Balasore, From mineral resources to human resources, General Colleges, KBK Central University, Koraput, KBK education, National Law University, Naraj, Orissa, New Universities, North Orissa University, Baripada, Private Universities, Technical Education, UCE Burla (To be called OIT)
1 Writeup Add your own
1. R.P.Tripathy | June 30th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Open University can make the educated unemployed youth employable as they can pursue a professional diploma course of their choice in a SOU. Of course IGNOU is there, but its reach is limited upto district headquarters level.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=BHUBANESWAR&file_name=bhub5%2Etxt&counter_img=5
Orissa Govt ignores need of Open University
Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar
… though 16 States already have such varsities
While all other States are busy opening their own State Open University (SOU), for Orissa it seems to be a closed chapter. By now, 16 State Open Universities have been established by various State Governments.
The first SOU, Andhra Pradesh Open University, was set up in Hyderabad in 1982 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Taking the cue, the Centre started the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 1985.
The Department of Higher Education of the Orissa Government had requested the Distance Education Council (DEC) of IGNOU in July 1997 for support in the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Draft Bill for the establishment of a SOU. The State Government provided Rs 3 lakh for the purpose to DEC, New Delhi. The DEC had accepted the request and, accordingly, an Advisory Committee was formed under the chairmanship of the IGNOU Vice-Chancellor, who is also the ex-officio Chairman of DEC. The first meeting of the Advisory Committee was held on September 8, 1997 in Bhubaneswar. The committee had another round of meeting after submission of the DPR along with the Draft Bill on January 8, 1998.
On the basis of the feedback received, DEC submitted the final DPR on February 13, 1998. The broad objective behind establishment of the Open University was to widen access to and promote a flexible, innovative and cost-effective system of education for the people of Orissa.
The innovative education would develop spirit of enterprise and knowledge, fostering creativity, productivity and the well-being of the community in general, said an educationist. Keeping in view the growth of higher education institutions in the State and lack of funds in financing them, the establishment of the Open University is the only answer to the problem, he added.
Moreover, the growth of substandard, fake institutions and private institutions outside the State in the name of deemed universities using the so-called distance mode would have been curbed if standardised educational facilities, more of vocational or professional in nature, had been offered to the young generations through the proposed Open University.
The Orissa Government subsequently formed a group to examine the DPR and Draft Bill submitted by DEC. But even after almost a decade, no concrete action has been taken for establishment of SOU, said the sources. In May 2006, the IGNOU Vice-Chancellor had a discussion with the Chief Secretary and Secretary of Higher Education on the issue and the Government had to intimate DEC in this regard. But no further steps have been taken.
Apart from Andhra Pradesh, the other neighbouring States like West Bengal, Bihar and MP also have SOUs. Recently, Assam has also established an SOU. While the Orissa Government is very keen to have private universities, it ignores the need to have an SOU, alleged educationists.
Post Your Thought
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed