NIT Sikkim's permanent campus will be ready by 2024: Subhas Sarkar, MoS Education

Union Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar, has assured that National Institute of Technology (NIT) Sikkim's permanent campus would be ready within the next three years with construction set to begin soon. The institute has been functioning from a temporary campus at Ravangla since its inception in 2010. The minister also announced that the second phase of construction of the Sikkim Central University's campus at Yangang, South Sikkim, will also be completed in the next two and a half years. 

The minister, who is on a two-day visit to the state, said, "I am happy that the Sikkim government has provided good quality land, measuring about 100 acres at Khamdong, East Sikkim, for the NIT campus. The construction work is likely to begin soon after the completion of all formalities. Rs 500 crore has been set aside for this.” This year marked the 14th Foundation Day of the Central University of Sikkim. In the wake of Sikkim carrying on with the implementation of the new National Education Policy (NEP), Sarkar said that the restructuring of standalone colleges for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary courses has started. 

“To get the out-of-school children (OoSC) back, a curriculum for the elementary level has been designed and the enrolment of these 15 to 18-year-old OoSC children in NIOS is underway,” he said. Sarkar was attending a national conference on 'NEP 2020: Towards India-Centred Holistic Inclusive Quality School Education'. The conference was conducted by the Board of Open Schooling and Skill Education, Sikkim, an open school board to cater to the varied academic needs of the divergent group of students up to pre-degree level, including secondary, senior secondary and skill and vocational education.

"The Board was set up last year through an act passed by the Sikkim Legislative Assembly. This is the first Board to be set up on the lines of the reforms proposed in the NEP. At present, we are offering skill education in 11 trades and are looking forward to adding eight more trades,” said Hemant Goyal, Chairman, BOSSE, Sikkim.