Bengal council to float new IT syllabus

In addition to all efforts for bringing investment in information technology (IT) sector , the government of West Bengal has decided to upgrade the quality IT training and education in the state.

The state government was working out a syllabus for all the engineering colleges to upgrade the curriculum for IT related studies, informed Manabendra Mukherjee, minister for information technology and environment.

"IT academic council (ITAC) of the government of West Bengal has come up with an model syllabus for all the engineering colleges offering four-year full time graduate programme in IT", he said at the one day interactive workshop organised by ITAC here today.

Academicians from a number of private and government engineering colleges participated to finalise the proposed syllabus.

The syllabus had been framed in consultation with ITAC, academician and recruiters from the IT industry, informed Mukherjee.

"ITAC had already organised an interaction between academia and industry to understand industry needs a couple of months back . This was to enhance the chance of the fresh graduates getting a job", he said.

It will not be mandatory for any institute to implement the curriculum.

It was expected to be the benchmark for high-quality teaching in IT in West Bengal, the minister said.

Referring to the increasing demand of IT professionals in the state, Mukherjee claimed professionals from other states were already migrating to West Bengal for jobs.

The present was the ideal time to produce quality professionals to meet industry demand.

The proposed course curriculum would address areas like electronic and telecommunication, management and computing.There would also be provisions for training in technical communication and foreign language, and advanced study in any related are without further approval from higher authorities, informed Sankar K Pal, chairman of ITAC.

A R Thakur, pro-vice chancellor of West Bengal University of Technology, spoke on the necessity of the project as proposed in the curriculum by ITAC.

"This would not only help the student understand the industry but shall also increase the employability of fresh graduates", Thakur claimed.

He stressed on the necessity for retraining teachers so that they could deliver the upgraded syllabus to students.

"More than 70 per cent of faculty members teaching Bachelor of Technology (BTech) courses in private colleges were themselves only BTech qualified and this was an important issue that needs a prompt solution", he added.