NCC elective to be part of college syllabus

Three colleges of the State will offer NCC as an elective subject

NCC being an attractive proposition among the college students today, the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has decided to introduce it as an elective at the college level.

On a pilot basis, NCC will be started as an elective subject in Rama Devi Women’s College, Bhubaneswar, Vikram Dev College in Jeypore and Khariar College in Nuapada. At a high-level meeting this week, the State Government approved these three colleges under urban, semi-urban and rural area categories respectively.

Currently, the State has 24 NCC units with around 44,000 cadets. It has 19 Army, one Air, three Naval wings and one girl’s division.

DHE officials said this was one way of attracting bright students to the NCC. “As NCC will be introduced as an elective in the college curriculum, its marks will be added to the overall grade. Earlier, students did not get any marks for taking part in NCC. From mass drill to cultural programmes, the cadets would be imparted training in various aspects,” said an official of the department. 

NCC cadets passing from these colleges will help the government to combat the Maoist menace in the State apart from taking part in other social service activities.

Elaborating on the training manual for NCC cadets of the select colleges, the official said while military training would continue to be an important part of the cadets, the emphasis would be on overall personality development so that they become better citizens.

During his visit to Sambalpur recently, NCC Group Commander Col Vikash Goswami had said that there were proposals to mention the performance of NCC cadets in their Board examination mark-sheets and give them credit points as in the sports and games.

Earlier, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Directorate had announced that it would open four more NCC units, including a naval one, in the State by this year. While the proposed naval unit will be set up at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district, others will come up at Malkanagiri, Nabarangapur and Rayagada. About 5,000 to 6,000 cadets will be deputed to the proposed units.

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