Tamil Nadu   

Has the budget failed to deliver?

N. Ravi Kumar

Students working in a laboratory.

CHENNAI: Has the budget ignored an opportunity to take the corporate sector along for the development of higher and technical education, particularly to address the burning need to infuse employable qualities in students?

The answer to this seems a big `yes' if the disappointment of some industry leaders in Tamil Nadu over the absence of private-public partnership in the delivery mechanism of the education sector is any indication.

It would have come as a delight had the budget pushed forward the reforms process, particularly in the higher education sector, by unshackling a lot of regulations to help improve the employability of youths, said R. ParasuRaman, southern region chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry.

Apart from encouraging corporate investment in education, it could have roped in the private sector in the delivery mechanism, he told The Hindu. His comments come in the backdrop of growing concern in industry about the lack of employable qualities among a majority of graduates, including those in engineering and technical streams.

S. Raghavan, secretary, Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said though the national common minimum programme laid emphasis on promotion of employment, there were no concrete proposals in this direction in the budget speech. Such initiatives were necessary in the face of lakhs of engineering graduates and professional degree holders passing out of colleges in Tamil Nadu alone.

R. Subramanian, secretary-general, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, felt there was still considerable scope for the private sector to associate itself with the education sector.

A recent study `War of talent,' commissioned by MCCI, found that the vast majority of graduates, both technical and non-technical, passing out of Tamil Nadu colleges lacked employable qualities.

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