Gandhinagar: In a detailed meeting covering all aspects of the State Education department, the new minister Jitubhai Vaghani gave directives on 14 different issues.

The minister pointed out that there’s no government university in 13 districts. He asked the department to come with estimates for setting up university/cluster university in the districts in order to make efforts for inclusion of same in the nex annual budget of the State.

Vaghani asked officials to come up with short term, middle term and long term planning for implementation of National Education Policy – 2020.

Vaghani stressed on start of skill based courses by utilizing existing infrastructure and facilities available in universities and colleges.

He asked to make effective efforts in the Centre to avail maximum grants for colleges and universities of Gujarat under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) 3.0.

He asked to start elective subjects to boost NSS and NCC activities in higher and technical education students.

He also asked to create a system for regular assessment of private universities and work for better NAAC and NIRF rank and accreditation and provide guidance, administrative and financial assistance for same.

He asked for restart of SCOPE (Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English) progarmme for English language training certificate from this year and make budget provision for same.

He asked to abolish the ceiling of 1,000 scholarships to students under SHODH(Scheme of Developing High Quality Research) and encourage more research at faculty level.

Vaghani stressed on more coverage of MKKN (Mukhyamantri Kanya Kelavni Nidhi), CMSS(Mukhyamantri Shishyavrutti Yojana) and ISSEL (subsidy scheme on educational loan).

Vaghani suggested changes in annual income limit for eligibility under MYSY(Mukhyamantri Swavlamban Yojana) and replace percentile with percentage in eligibility criteria of the scheme. DeshGujarat