HYDERABAD: Stressing on the need for bringing in innovative changes in the existing higher education system, Minister of IT and Industries, KT Rama Rao suggested that Practice School system must be introduced as part of the curriculum. Rama Rao said this on Monday, in his address to a gathering of more than 2,000 students, at the inaugural of 7th International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Education at Anurag Group of Institutions, Venkatapur.
He informed that JNTU Hyderabad is actively considering this model. It will be on the lines of a similar system in Germany, and will be for a duration of either six or 12 months. He added that it might start from this academic year. Practice School system allows a student to practice concepts learnt in classrooms, and use them in real-life situations by assigning them time-bound projects in a company, which help in introducing them to workplace behaviour.
Speaking on the theme ‘Socio-humanistic approach in engineering education’, he also said that for 20 years IT has been ‘Information Technology’, but now it means ‘Intelligence Technology’. Rama Rao said that Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge (TASK) in the past five years reached out to 680 colleges, trained 5,070 faculty and 2.9 lakh students in various skill sets. He added that TASK will expand its footprint to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities — Warangal, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Nalgonda.
Education minister, P Sabitha Indra Reddy and MLC and Chairman of AGI Dr Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, also spoke at the event. Rajeshwar Reddy announced that AGI is likely to become a private university soon, once permission processes are completed.