The students cannot be blamed for lack of employability because quality of teaching is poor in most of the higher education institutions said E. Balagurusamy, Member (Education), State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu. He was addressing a one-day interface programme, ICTACT Bridge, organised by the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu in association with NASSCOM to “focus on employability skills”. "Our findings show that majority of teachers in many engineering colleges are in mediocre category. When the teachers themselves are lacking employability skills, how can we expect their students to be employable? So, the correction has to start from the level of teachers. It is time to have a serious look at the quality of teachers employed in various engineering colleges and arts and science colleges as well,” he said.
Dr. Balagurusamy who had had earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, said that nearly 50 per cent of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu came under “poor category” in teaching-learning process.
He also took a dig at the IT companies for focusing more on communication and soft skills and not giving more importance to technical skills among students when they recruit candidates through campus recruitment.“It is the IT sector that is destroying other sectors in India. Economic development cannot happen with IT field alone. The country needs ‘blue collar' jobs also along with “white collar” positions and we have to give priority to enhance the technical base of our students along with communication skill,” he said.
He emphasized that focus on students' employability must start from the school level itself, “Knowledge, skills and attitude are the three main pillars of education. Skill development initiatives are not meant for IT companies alone. Manufacturing sector also is pivotal for a nation's development,” he added that the “disconnect” between industry and education must be removed by all means.
[Source: The Hindu
