• Loreni Tsanglao, NET Correspondent, Nagaland 

The Advisor of Labour & Employment, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (L&E,SD&E) – Imnatiba today inaugurated the first pilot School of excellence in skill development at Govt Higher Secondary School, Sechu, Zubza.

Speaking at the occasion, Imnatiba noted that altogether 90,000 unemployed are registered in the Employment department in the state; and stressed on the importance for vocational and skill development among the youngsters.

Highlighting on the necessary requirement of digital invention, Imnatiba mentioned that Information Technology (IT) has now stepped beyond the physical realm and the future job creation will largely depend in the IT sector.

He urged the village council, School authority, staffs and students to perform their best and make this pilot project successful so as to encourage other government schools in the state; thereby encouraging both the educators and learners to equally inspire each other and to honour the school of excellence by giving a facelift to the young frustrated ones in the days to come.

In his speech, the Director of School Education – Wonthungo Tsopoe informed that the idea of the school of excellence in skill development was conceptualize by the skill development department and NIELIT and this new project is going to be an eye opener.

Earlier, Secretary L &E, SD & E Department, Rajesh Soundararajan urged the school authority and the council to make the best use of the facilities given to the school and to make it the best in future.

The pilot project has been taken-up through a collaboration between Department of Skill development, Department of School Education and NIELIT keeping in view the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the key emphasis on promotion and participation of the students in vocational education.

Through this intervention, it is expected that the students undergoing the training programme will gain core competences in the IT sector as well as improve their soft skills.

The main objective of the project is to make acquisition of skills aspirational at a young age and make them employable as there is a growing need to not only develop the skills to make the young adults in the state employable but also to strengthen the institution capacity.

Altogether 20 computer sets were installed and the intervention will start with the students from class VIII who will be trained for specific duration as prescribed by NIELIT every year and the same batch of students promotion to the next class will be trained in different module till Class X.

The course is being designed by NIELIT keeping in mind the progression of the students also the alignment with the industry and the national skill qualification framework (NSQF).