QUALITY EDUCATION IN IT SECTOR VITAL LINK FOR INDIA BECOMING GLOBAL
RESERVOIR FOR IT PROFESSIONALS : SHRI MAHAJAN
MINISTER INAUGURATES 8TH
DOEACC ANNUAL REVIEW WORKSHOP
Union Minister for Parliamentary
Affairs, Communications and IT, Shri Pramod Mahajan has said that
unless appropriate strategic investment is made in HRD, India
will never become a reservoir for IT professionals for the entire
world. In order to fulfil this objective, it was extremely necessary
to invest in education, keeping in mind the percentage of investment
of GDP made by other countries in the field of education. It was
extremely important in the Indian context where a large percentage
of the population remained not only conventionally illiterate
but also IT illiterate. The Government, Shri Mahajan remarked,
was committed to facilitate education to the people and for this
purpose, he hoped that the constitutional amendment regarding
making education a fundamental right would be passed by the Upper
House during the last phase of the current Session of Parliament.
The Minister made these observations while delivering the Inaugural
Address at the 8th DOEACC Annual Review Workshop here
today.
Elaborating further, Shri Mahajan
said that the need of the hour was to impart quality education
keeping in mind the needs and requirements of business and technology
development. Quality education was extremely important as it created
a brand equity for the institution imparting it. Complimenting
the DOEACC, the Minister said being awarded the ISO-9001-2000
Certificate by the globally recognised STQC Certification Services
of Department of Information Technology was an achievement in
itself. This landmark achievement would help in developing and
sustaining quality education in the non-formal sector. He urged
the other Societies under the Department of Information Technology
to set similar standards and achieve the Certification in due
course of time. If such institutions developed qualitatively,
the battle against mushrooming of IT institutes across the country
could be effectively combated.
Shri Mahajan complimented DOEACC
for instituting a new scheme for IT education. This scheme reflected
the social obligations of the DOEACC. He announced that under
the new scheme, 100 students would be selected belonging to the
socially deprived sections of society which included SC/STs, physically
handicapped persons. For this purpose, scholarships would be given
ranging from Rs.4000-30,000 on an individual basis. The Minister
announced that the Society had instituted a Corpus Fund of Rs.2
crore in this regard.
Shri Mahajan also underlined the
challenges that lay before DOEACC in the years to come. It was
important not only to impart education, upgrading educational
tools was also a priority. People specially students had to be
made aware of the technological revolution specially the tools
that empowered them. Speaking earlier, Secretary, Department of
IT, Shri R.R. Shah said that DOEACC had to attune its systems
to current technological trends in the field of IT and bio-technology.
Quality education also implied synergy between the two sectors.
This was extremely necessary as non-formal education had a vast
outreach and network and that it was extremely accessible to the
people at large.
Under the programme of DOEACC, four
levels of courses, O(Foundation), A (Advanced Diploma), B (MCA
equivalent) and C (M.Tech.) levels of courses are conducted. DOEACC
Society conducts examinations twice a year starting at over 120
centres in the country on second Saturday in January and July.
Over 3.4 lakh students are currently registered. Over 80,000 students
appeared in January 2002 examinations. So far, 22,000 IT professionals
have been produced. It has a network of over 700 accredited institutes,
conducting about 1000 courses covering every state of the country.
The extra ordinary acceptance of
this scheme can be gauged by the fact that it saw a growth of
over 40% during the year 2001, the year of slow down of IT industry.
Besides, ‘O’ and ‘A’ level trainings are being imparted in Sri
Lanka for the last two years, while ‘O’ level training has started
in Nepal with effect from this year. Discussions are in final
stages for its implementation in Uzbekistan. Indian Government
has also reached an understanding of mutual recognition of DOEACC
courses with the Government of Japan and Singapore.
