MOHALI: Punjab Chief Minister  Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday reiterated his firm commitment to impart hi-tech quality education to the students of Punjab at par excellence with the renowned educational institutions across the globe. 

Presiding over a function to launch the scholarship scheme to the meritorious students of the Continental Institute of International Studies (CIIS) here at its campus,  Badal emphasized the importance of the quality education and squarely held the governments both States and Centre for the constant deterioration in the educational system and said now it was a high time to make concerted efforts to revamp the entire system according to the emerging trends worldwide in the changed scenario.  

He said the state government had already launched a scheme to open 'Adarsh Schools' throughout the state to provide quality education free of cost to the economically poor and bright students.  He admitted the fact that there was a wide gulf between the standard of rural and urban education which was now being narrowed down through initiating certain measures aimed at strengthening the base of school education in the rural sector.  He said that government Senior Secondary Schools were being provided with sound infrastructure in terms of building, laboratories and well qualified staff in the science stream at a cost of Rs.142 crore.  The scheme would enable the students to get admissions in the medical and technical courses and it has yielded positive results as many students with rural background had fared better this time by securing more seats in the institutions of higher learning as compared to last year. 

Dwelling on the concept of career counseling which had been launched for the first time in the state to motivate and guide the students who had passed 10th in first division to enable them to opt subjects of their choice as per their aptitude and acumen. 'This step would certainly prove to be a great success for the students who were earlier at the cross roads due to sheer ignorance and dilemma,' hoped Mr. Badal.  The Chief Minister pointed out that now Punjab had one of the best networks of technical education institutions in the country but the only factor which these institutes lack was the poor quality of students at the entry level. He asked the management of the premier technical, engineering and management institutions to adopt and run few 10+2 schools with in its vicinity to impart better quality of education as these institutions had better infrastructure and highly trained staff.  He said that such schools would act as a nursery to meet the demand of these technical and management institutions and obviously the out put would also be far better in terms of high profile graduates and post graduates passing out from these institutions.   He said that once such students were admitted in these institutions of excellence then their career was assured.

The Chief Minister also lauded the role of the management of CIIS and asked the President CIIS Educational Society Lt.Col. (Retd.) BS Sandhu to establish such more institutions in other parts of the state also to benefit the under privileged and economically poor students. 

In his address, Member Parliament from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai Khanna said that Punjab's youth had a tremendous academic potential, which remained untapped and could be optimally exploited through proper motivation, financial support and counseling.  He said that it could be achieved through the participation of NGOs, voluntary and social organizations in state government's educational programme that could identify the students amongst the unprivileged section of the society who had not enough means to pursue basic as well as higher education.    He said the state government should encourage for setting up such educational institutes of repute to provide quality education to the students thereby enhancing their chances of employability apart from extending liberal financial support to the poor and needy students. 

Speaking on the occasion,   Advisor CIIS Lt. Gen. KS Mann highlighted the objectives and achievements of the campus and its future plans and projections.  He also apprised about the functioning and academic activities of CIIS with the faculty members of the foreign universities associated with CIIS. 

In his welcome address President CIIS Educational Society Lt.Col (Retd.) BS Sandhu assured the Chief Minister that the management would soon come out with the proposal to set up feeder institutions in the state to strengthen the educational base of the students on one hand and to provide overseas employment to them on the other. 

Later, Mr.Badal gave away the scholarship award for the year 2008 to a meritorious student Ms. Harpreet Kaur to launch the scholarship scheme worth Rs.4 crore. 

Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included Media Advisor to Chief Minister Harcharan Bains, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Gagandeep Singh Brar besides the Director of CIIS Gurdeepak Singh.