Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today directed consolidation of Educational infrastructure in the State with a view to strengthen the curricular and other facilities at the Higher educational level.Chairing the 4th meeting of the State Higher Education Council here today, the Chief Minister directed equipping the institutions of higher learning in the State with requisite faculty, laboratories, workshops, libraries and other accessories.Minister for Education, Syed Altaf Bukhari and Minister of State for Education, Priya Sethi were present in the meeting.Mehbooba Mufti also directed strengthening Students Welfare Centres at the universities and making students real stakeholders in the affairs of the universities so that responsible citizens of future are readied. She also directed setting up incubation centres at the universities so that the students get trained to pursue their careers in a proper manner.
Reviewing the activities in technical education sector, the Chief Minister directed streamlining of fee structure in all the Nursing Colleges in the State. Also she directed introduction of career counseling and personality development among students from the high school level so that the students are properly groomed at the time of career selection.In a significant direction, the Chief Minister directed introduction of Punjabi language alongwith Kashmiri, Dogri and other languages in schools and colleges and also asked the Higher Education Department to create faculty for teaching languages and get them filled accordingly.The Chief Minister also approved in principle the setting up of a Horticulture University at Wadura by the Higher Education Department and a Law University in the State.
The Council also gave nod to the setting up of two Administrative Staff Colleges at Srinagar and Jammu. The meeting was informed that a student hostel built by the State Government at New Delhi at a cost of Rs. 30 crore is now complete and about to be operationalised.The meeting was informed that work on 25 colleges in the State is apace and out of these, 16 colleges are targeted to be completed this fiscal. The meeting was also informed that four projects worth Rs. 30 crore have been taken up in various universities of the State to upgrade Engineering laboratories.On the occasion, the Chief Minister also released a special edition of EduPlus, a House journal of the Higher Education Department.Chief Secretary, B. B. Vyas; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Commissioner-Secretary, Higher Education, Dr. Asgar Samoon; Secretary, School Education, Farooq Shah; Vice Chancellors of State, Central and Cluster Universities and other senior officers were present in the meeting.