Minister for Higher Education D H Shankarmurthy has suggested the colleges to emphasise on Communicative English in the backdrop of the decline in the number of students opting for Humanities courses.

Addressing teaching faculties during his visit to the KSS Degree College here on Friday, he said the initiative was inevitable to make the courses in Arts subjects relevant.

“There is much demand for those who have pursued education in technical subjects. Hence there is a need to give certain vocational skills to the Arts students to retain their relevance. The government will soon start a scheme to impart job-oriented technical skills to the 50,000 non-engineering students,” he informed.

The aided private colleges need not apprehend over the sanctioning of new government colleges. If one degree college is granted, three more pre-university colleges will be approved correspondingly, Mr Shankarmurthy assured.

He observed that there should be a healthy competition between the government and private educational institutions.

College Principal G Dinesh Kamat was present.SUBJECTS TO BE SCRAPPED?Mr Shankarmurthy hinted at scrapping certain ‘old’ courses from the degree education, who also indirectly stated that certain lecturers will lose their present responsibilities.

He said permission would be given to the colleges to start new courses instead of those courses having less demand, and added that the government would soon come to a decision on continuing grants to the old courses.
“If certain lecturers will have to lose their present responsibilities due to the cancellation of some subjects, they will be accommodated in some other colleges,” he stated.