Skilled manpower productive force for development: Upadhyaya

January 8, 2001
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Lalitpur, Jan. 8 : Minister for Education and Sports Amod Prasad Upadhyaya has said that a developing country like Nepal is faced with newer types of challenges in the light of the new avenues of development opened up by information technology and vocational education.

Minister for Education Upadhyaya was inaugurating the “regional workshop on developing an accreditation system for Technical Education and Training (TET)” jointly organised by the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, and the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), here today.

Stating His Majesty’s Government has given emphasis to the development of skilled manpower for the sake of the economic development of the country, Minister Upadhyaya stressed the need of technical education and vocational training as a way to resolve the growing unemployment problem.

Vice-chairman of CTEVT Saroj Devkota, speaking from the chair, said that the council has been coordinating the various vocational education trainings conducted by the government and the private sector.

He said that the workshop seminar would prepare a directory for evaluating the standard and usefulness of training offered by the training providers.

Director of the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education Dr. Bernardo F. Adiviso underscored the need for giving emphasis to technical and vocational education, saying that only skilled technical manpower can be a productive force for national development.

CTEVT Director and Curriculum Coordinator Dr. Tanka Nath Sharma expressed the hope that the workshop would help set out the parameters of technical and vocational training in the absence of such an evaluation system in Nepal till now.

The regional workshop is being participated in by some 33 persons from 14 countries of the Asia Pacific region and it is to continue till January 19.

Meanwhile, addressing a 5-day workshop organised by Department of Education, Sanothimi, Minister Upadhyaya said that the time has already arrived for all working in the educational sector to make the existing system efficient in order to face the challenges before the country today.

He said, “All those engaged in the education sector from the centre to the district level should make a joint endeavour to mobilise the limited available resources in the country and derive maximum advantage by making preparations in advance to complete specified programmes within the stipulated time”.

Stating that as education is a topic of public concern and the programmes launched could not yield the desired results if the participation of the children of the people could not be ensured in educational programmes, he said that taking these facts into consideration, the draft amendment to the education act had made provisions for the representation of guardians in school governing bodies.

Education directors and district education officers of the Eastern and Central Development Regions shed light on current educational issues. District education officers and section officers of the two regions are attending the workshop.