Updated on: Thursday, April 05, 2012
Science and technology minister Gautam Singh, expressing his concern over the sluggish growth of technical education in Bihar, said here on Wednesday said that the government was striving hard to ensure rapid growth of well-equipped technical institutions and check the migration of talent from the state.
Releasing the results of the first semester engineering examinations of 2011-12 session conducted by Aryabhat Knowledge University (AKU), the minister said about 300 engineering colleges were opened in just three years in Andhra Pradesh during the regime of Chandrababu Naidu, but only 12 technical institutions were opened in Bihar during the last six years. Non-availability of land at suitable places and lack of infrastructural facilities were proving constraints in opening new technical institutions in the state, he said.
Appreciating the progress of AKU within two years, Singh said all private engineering and medical colleges of the state must be brought under the control of AKU with a view to ensuring uniformity in standard of education. The government has already initiated steps for promoting education in science and technology by constructing new buildings for 10 engineering colleges and 34 polytechnics. The process of recruitment of teaching staff against vacant posts in all these technical institutions was likely to start soon, he said.
The government is also going to set up Aryabhat Astronomical Research Centre at Khagaul, and a science centre, science city and new planetarium in Patna soon. Consultants for these projects are being appointed and the construction work would start soon, he added.
AKU vice-chancellor S N Guha said now the engineering and medical students of the state would not have to wait for long for their examination results. AKU has developed a mechanism for ensuring timely examination and publication of results. Results of the first MBBS examination conducted by this university were published in the first week of March this year, he said.
AKU engineering faculty dean Dhruv Prasad, registrar Amitabh Ghosh and examination controller Akhileshwar Prasad besides the principals of different engineering colleges were present on the occasion.