Education sector in bad shape, time to introspect: Upendra Kushwaha

Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Friday lamented absence of quality education in the country, saying it was time to introspect why qualified youths have to "approach" influential people for employment.

At the inauguration of a new, sprawling state-of-the-art building of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Minister of State for Human Resource Development said "quality of education" was the biggest challenge.

Speaking about the experience of people in public life like lawmakers, Kushwaha noted often people with engineering degrees approach them seeking employment.

"Sometime people also come who have engineering degrees but are working on salaries of Rs 10,000 or Rs 12,000 per month. It's troubling. Have we created such engineers? If the industry is not willing to pay even Rs 8,000 or Rs 10,000, we will have to introspect, why is there such a situation," Kushwaha said.

There are many institutions teaching engineering, some of which are even being shut because of insufficient number of students, he said.

Kushwaha said the situation instead should be such that the industry flocks to campuses to hire students.

"Quality of education is the biggest challenge facing us," he told AICTE officials.

Assuring support from his ministry to improve the situation, Kushwaha mentioned various programmes of the Narendra Modi government like Digital India, Skill India and Make in India that are designed to benefit young people.

Kushwaha told AICTE functionaries to work keeping in mind the concerns of the people in the villages and taxpayers.