Gadkari pitches for skill development courses for tribal students, rating of ‘ashram shalas’

Nagpur, Jan 3 (PTI) Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday urged the Maharashtra Tribal Development Department to enhance the skills of tribal students in the state through various courses and help them become engineers, doctors and civil servants.

The Minister of Road Transport and Highways was addressing a gathering at the prize distribution programme of a state-level competition organised by the department.

He suggested to Minister of Tribal Development Ashok Uike, who also attended the programme, to conduct ratings of ‘ashrama shalas (residential schools) for tribal students and facilitate those with good performance to set up skill development institutes.

The Union minister stressed the need to aim high and batted for rolling out schemes to ensure quality education and skill development courses for tribal children.

“Help the tribal children become professionals like researchers, doctors, engineers and civil servants,” Gadkari said.

Gadkari exhorted the department to also focus on providing training to tribal students so that they can take up jobs in the hotel industry, and become loco pilots and airline pilots.