J&K Education minister Naeem Akhtar has asked the Islamic University of Sciences and Technology (IUST) to start evening classes on experimental basis to increase its student intake capacity.
"The initiative will make the University utilize the available resources in the best interest of the students and also prevent them from getting duped by fake universities outside the state," he said at a seminar yesterday at the IUST campus at Awantipora in Pulwama district.
The minister also proposed the introduction of vocational courses in the varsity in order to ensure respectable livelihood for a large proportion of youth.
"...There are a large number of young men and women who take up employment directly after high school, and then realize that their career prospects are restricted because of the absence of a degree," Akhtar said.
Akhtar said the move will pave the way for such students to enroll for higher education who do not get admission in educational institutions of the state due to paucity of seats.
He also suggested that teachers try and rejuvenate entrepreneurial skills among the students so that they set up income generating units of their own rather than hankering after government jobs.
The minister inspected several departments, ongoing development work, workshops, laboratories, library and administrative blocks in the varsity.
Impressed by the food technology laboratory, Akhtar asked the students to set up a pizza outlet within the premises of the University, as a step towards creating entrepreneurial tendency among the students.
