The English language labs project of the Department of Higher Education (DHE) will be functional from 2013-14 academic session. The language lab facility will be available for both degree colleges and their associated junior colleges. The DHE had earlier this year signed an MoU with IIT-Kharagpur for the purpose.
While the DHE had decided to set up these labs in 10 colleges, five each in private and government, the project is complete in four government colleges. Those are BJB College at Bhubaneswar, Government College at Rourkela, Rajendra College at Balangir and Vikram Dev College at Jeypore. The one at Government College of Bhawanipatna will be ready by September this year as the building in which the lab would be set up, is under construction.
While Rs 80.73 lakh has been spent on the four labs, the total project cost of English language labs is ` two crore. Since spoken and soft skills (computer knowledge) are pre-requisites for getting jobs, the need for starting these labs was felt by the State Government, officials said. Emphasis will also be laid on developing group discussion skills, body language and communication skills of the students in these labs. The IIT-Kharagpur had prepared a project cost for 24-seater and 32-seater labs.Sandeep Pal of the Centre for Advanced Communication, IIT-Kharagpur, said the institution had invented an Interactive Software Integrated Learning System (ISILS), an updated electronic tool coupled with digital courseware for language and communication skill development. “Each lab will be equipped with one computer for each student, projector screens and other demonstration equipment,” he said.
DHE officials believe that interactive language labs would go a long way in teaching effective communication skills to the students. “The skills acquired by them from the labs would stand them in good stead in getting better jobs in the government and private sector,” said Mihir Das, officer in-charge of Performance Tracking Cell of DHE.
No comments:
Post a Comment