Date:24/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072458460200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Impart employability skills at schools, V-C tells teachers

Special Correspondent

“It will help younger generation to face challenges better”

CHENNAI: Anna University Vice-Chancellor Mannar Jawahar on Wednesday appealed to the teaching fraternity to impart employability skills at the school level itself to help prepare the younger generation face the challenges in life better.

Unveiling the foundation stone tablet of St. John’s College of Teacher Education and delivering the Founder’s Day message coinciding with the 75th birth anniversary of the Founder, G. Rajakumar, he said that while most of the educational institutions were focussing on knowledge creation and skill development, the need of the hour was to develop employability skills to mould the younger generation better.

While urging R. Kishore Kumar, Senior Principal, St. John’s International Residential School (SJIRS) , to start an engineering college in Tamil Nadu, Dr.Jawahar said that the most sought after course was still be engineering since the students after the four-year course got immediate placement in Information Technology related companies.

At present, there were a total of 349 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu and as many as 1.10 lakh students join engineering courses every year. “The utmost tribute for late Rajakumar will be to create an engineering college and make it available to the needy students especially from the rural background…”, he said paying rich tributes to Rajakumar and lauding his contribution for the cause of education.

Mr.Kishore Kumar said the proposed St. John’s College of Teacher Education would come up on a 2-acre plot as part of the SJIRS campus and would become operational by June next year. It would be equipped with a modern library and have computer-aided teaching aids. It would offer B.Ed., M.Ed., M.Phil., and Ph.D programmes with affiliation to the All India Council of Teacher Education and also the University of Madras.

The College of Teacher Education will focus on skill development, practical psychology, and have direct interaction with higher education institution of excellence both within the country and overseas.

Chairperson of SJIRS Sakuntala Rajakumar, Suresh Kumar, another son of Rajakumar, Sylvia Reginald, Principal, St.John’s Matriculation School, Mandaveli, V. Venkatachalam, educationist, and Xavier, a close friend of Rajakumar, were among those who spoke on the occasion.