Date:20/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/20/stories/2008052058040200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

More job-oriented courses in government colleges

Staff Reporter

Those with less patronage from students to go

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

Revamping education: Higher Education Department secretary K. Ganesan and Science City Vice Chairman V. Varaprasada Rao interacting with students at the inaugural of the camp in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: The Department of Higher Education plans to introduce courses that provide better employment opportunity in government colleges, Secretary to the department K. Ganesan said on Monday.

Speaking at the inaugural of the ‘Summer Science Camp 2008’ at Science City in Kotturpuram, he said it was in the process of identifying courses that did not receive enough patronage from students in the past couple of years and those with the least number of students.

The staff in these colleges, however, would not be disturbed.

Mr. Ganesan said the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology had sanctioned Rs.5 lakh to train Chennai Corporation school teachers on how to make science more interesting for students. He said three mobile planetariums, each costing Rs.5 lakh, would be launched this year. This was part of the initiative to take astronomy and related sciences to the villages, he said. He added that work on the Coimbatore and Vellore planetariums was in progress. One more planetarium had been proposed at Madurai, he added.

Science City Vice Chairman V. Varaprasada Rao said due to the IT boom, it was sad to see very few students opting for studies and research in basic sciences. He said science and technology must not be limited to laboratories alone, but be made more socially relevant.

Science City Advisor K. Sankaran said 100 students from different schools would be trained in life sciences, environmental sciences, biotechnology, first aid, accident and emergency medicine, physics and technology, earth science and remote sensing during the five-day camp.