MOHALI: Three private universities coming up in Punjab by the end of this year will focus on quality and skill development that’s missing from the present education system, says chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. He was at the Times of India event ‘Mohali: The Next Big IT Hub’ here on Tuesday.

Talking about the plans of his state government to bridge the gap between the industry’s requirement and the academic curriculum, he said the land to three private universities will bring quality education to the students for a low fee. Aritel and Ashoka University are building “affordable campuses” in Punjab. About the challenge before the education system, the CM said: “The private institutes are meeting their target of quality education to their students but the government schools and colleges are far behind.”

Worried over Punjab’s lastyear school report card that shows 50% of its students failed in Class X, he said: “It is unacceptable. The government is going to improve the show by promoting private participation and asking companies to adopt primary schools and revamp these according to the present needs.” GBP group sales director Anupam Gupta said most of the companies were unable to recruit from Punjab because they didn’t get quality product from its engineering institutes.

Punjab Technical University dean A P Singh said the gap between the industry’s needs and the academic curriculum could be bridged, if the universities gave industry representatives a role in designing curriculum. National Institute of Electronics and IT additional director Meenakshi Gaur said the students coming to them for BTech lacked basic computer skills.

Source: https://goo.gl/Ye1yU9