BHUBANESWAR: The Employment and Technical Education and Training (ETET) Department will start a bridge course in English fundamentals across all Government engineering schools and polytechnics from this academic session.
The Government institutions have been asked to identify and hire qualified guest faculties to take the classes. The bridge course in English fundamentals will be based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) format and equivalent to the structure of class IX and X. The Department has provided a blueprint for the bridge course and guest faculties will have the scope to modify it as per requirements of students.
The decision was based on the observation that students passing out of such institutes, though well versed in technical aspects of their respective subjects, lack communication skills in English. Majority of the companies that come for recruitment conduct pre-screening test in which candidates' English proficiency is also checked. Classroom teaching of English was found to be the only solution for the issue.
ETET Department Commissioner-cum-Secretary CS Kumar said since majority of the students enrolled in the technical institutes come from a vernacular background, they need training in basic English to appear at competitive examinations. The funding for the project will be provided by the Department. In case, any institute incurs additional expenditure, the students can be asked to share the additional expense, he said.
The one month bridge course will be compulsory for all students and 10 per cent of the sessional marks will be deducted from semester scores if anyone fails to attend the classes. Principals of the technical institutes have been asked to make arrangements for conducting the special classes by the end of this month.