Experts from the field of education have opined that promoting vocational courses, generally tailor-made for industry, could be a good idea to make youths employable.

The view, expressed during the Bihar Education Summit organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce on Friday, came at a time when the Union government is promoting 'Make in India' to push up employment opportunities in the country. The programme aimed at bringing forth the ideas of experts for improving the education sector in the state.

The effort assumes significance because Bihar witnesses large-scale migration of students to other states every year g to lack of options in the state with regard to quality and employability factors.

Former CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, one of the prominent speakers in Friday's function, said: 'Despite efforts by the government to promote vocational education among students, not much success has been attained because the people are afraid of admitting their children in vocational courses.'

The former chairman said vocational education should be made mandatory from Class I to Class X for students. From the Class XII level, vocational courses should have separate courses, where emphasis should be given to industry interface.

Ganguly, who has served as CBSE chairman from 2000 to 2008, said: 'For schools, education can become excellence-based on four Ps - plan for infrastructure facilities at school, people (good teachers in school), processing (changing curriculum and course content with latest requirement) and product (students).

Super30 founder Anand Kumar emphasised the need for public-private partnership mode in education to develop quality education at a more rapid pace.

Abhishek Mishra, the Uttar Pradesh minister of vocational education and skill development, who was the special guest at the function, said: 'Education doesn't mean only learning formulae and theorems, rather it should define our behaviour.'