Jammu and Kashmir government promotes higher education by introducing new qualitative courses in the Valley.
Talking to mediapersons, principal of a Srinagar based college Zahoor Ahmad Chatt said: "It's the policy of the government that general line education is not that much sufficient for meeting the requirements of the market. We have to develop skilled manpower out of the institutions. So the government has made a point that in all the districts where the polytechnic colleges are not functioning at present, they must be opened.
"And in some of the districts the process has already begun. I think within a span of five years, each district of Jammu and Kashmir would be having one polytechnic college," he added.
He further said that courses on environment and water management have acquired a great deal of significance in the past few years.
"For the last four to five years higher education has developed tremendously. Earlier the focus was mainly on medicine or engineering. And if we would not get selected then we would have to leave our city and try elsewhere. Now, Information Technology and Electronics are booming. There is a lot of development happening here. There are a number of diploma courses, which have been introduced and a number of polytechnics have been set up to aid the students," said Sageer Abbass, a student.
The Central government has sanctioned 100 crores of rupees (1 billion) aimed to make education sector stronger in the valley. Out of the sanctioned money 40 per cent was invested only on higher education.
Recently, the state government has allocated 22 hectares land to higher education department for setting up Central University of Kashmir.
