Language Labs for Eight More Colleges

The New Indian Express, Oct 26, 2014

BHUBANESWAR: English language labs will come up in 12 Government colleges and six non-Government colleges of the State.

Last year on March 1, the Higher Education Department had signed an MoU with IIT-Kharagpur for setting up the labs in five Government and as many private colleges. However, it was decided to extend the project to a few more colleges in wake of the demand.

Some of the Government colleges where the labs will be set up are Khallikote College at Ganjam, Government colleges at Angul, Bhawanipatna, Sambalpur and Government Women’s College at Keonjhar and MPC College at Baripada. While the labs at Government colleges are coming up at a cost of `two crore, cost of those in private colleges is being worked out.

The private colleges identified under the project are Gopalpur College and City College, Ganjam; SR College, Balasore; UN College of Science and Technology, Cuttack; Baba Saheb Ambedkar College at Gajapati and DAV College, Balangir.

Since spoken and soft skills (computer knowledge) are a pre-requisite for getting jobs, the need for starting these labs was felt by the State Government.

Sources in the Department said IIT-Kharagpur has been asked to visit the identified private colleges to study infrastructure requirements and submit the feasibility report.

Sandeep Pal of 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 that will be used in the proposed labs.

“Each lab will be equipped with one computer per student, projector screen and other demonstration equipment,” he said. IIT-Kharagpur has been asked to prepare project estimate for 24-seater and 32-seater labs. Work will be started in the current academic session.

Laboratories apart, the Department is contemplating to take the help of Cambridge University to train college teachers in English teaching.

As per the proposal, English language teaching training modules developed by Cambridge University will be used to train English teachers of junior colleges during the summer vacation.