Kohima: Nagaland Minister for Urban Development and Higher Education Shürhozelie Liezietsu has informed that the state government has already purchased 300 acres of land at in Dimapur district for National Institute of Technology (NIT) to be set up at Chumukedima.
The foundation stone of the NIT headquarters was likely to be laid by Union Minister of Human Resource Development in October.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 15th biennial General Conference of the All Nagaland College Students’ Union (ANCSU) at St Joseph’s College Jakhama, near Kohima, as the chief guest yesterday Mr Liezietsu said earlier Nagas dwelt more on quantitative expansion of education but today it was time to concentrate on qualitative education by improving the entire system so that educated youth could become useful assets of the state.
Recalling that advancement of education had been slow from the time the first formal school was launched in the state back in 1878 till the early part of 1964, he asserted that the opening of new schools and upgradation of existing ones were in good progress now. At the higher education level, he said Nagaland has 14 government and 38 secular private colleges and 24 theological colleges as per official record.
In addition to Nagaland University, he said few private universities have been established such as the Global Open University, ICFAI and Amity University.
Terming it unfortunate that the ‘work culture’ was slowly disappearing in the state, Mr Liezietsu highlighted on the findings made by the evaluation department on different aspects of employable opportunities in the three municipal council towns of Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung.
On porters, he said, the sector alone has 4,012 people earning Rs 33.000 crore per annum with an average annual per capita income of Rs 82,192. He pointed out that Nagas were not engaged in these sectors. By making such projection, he opined that change of curriculum and other methodology in education system alone might not be able to change the scenario that the state has at present.
Due to the rise in unemployment; people were now shifting focus more towards technical education as many students opt for technical and professional courses as a means of finding ‘gainful employment’, he observed. (UNI)