Students and academicians have appreciated the state government’s commitment to enhancing the skills of youth, as enunciated in the Budget presented on Monday.
The budget said an analysis of the skill-need gap of the state for the next 15 years indicated about two crore persons need to be skilled afresh or re-skilled.
“The Tamil Nadu skill development mission will involve adopting flexible and innovative approaches to delivering skill training, certification, combining continuing education with work in coordination with the industry,” finance minister O. Pannerselvam said.
The government has created a special purpose vehicle with participation from the private sector and has set apart Rs 75 crore in this year’s budget, apart from establishing 37 district-level private sector placement assistance cells at a cost of Rs 193.20 lakh.
Welcoming the budget announcements, former Anna University vice-chancellor and member of the state planning commission, Prof. E. Balagurusamy, said employability of youth had become essential and the state planning commission had taken up skill development as one of the thrust areas in the XII five-year Plan.
Pointing out that educated youth were mainly unemployed, Prof. Balagurusamy said the government had to equip them with skills. “At present, there is lack of skill development in schools, colleges and polytechnics as the curriculum does not allow it to happen. This is because of the system focusing more on exam and marks,” he added.
He noted that the government should include skill development as part of the curriculum in schools and higher education institutions.
The government has also reiterated its assurance to make Tamil Nadu a dropout-free state in school education. “It is our endeavour to ensure that all children between 6-14 years of age who have been left out of the school system are enrolled in schools by the end of the academic year so that the state achieves 100 per cent enrolment level,” the budget said.
Welcoming the budget, Mr Sami Sathyamoorthy, state general secretary, association of heads of high and higher secondary schools of Tamil Nadu, said with special schemes by the state and Central governments almost all students had been enrolled in schools across the state.
“We request the government to provide incentives to students so that they don’t drop out of school. Some scheme should be devised to retain girl students in schools as most of them drop out after the elementary level,” he said.