Kathmandu, Aug. 13: As many as 8,000 people graduate with various engineering degrees in the country each year.
Currently 49 educational institutes have taken permission from the Council for conducting courses in engineering and have been running classes. Similarly, 24,000 engineers are registered with the Nepal Engineering Council.
This information was given out at a discussions programme on strengthening the engineering profession organised by the Council here today.
The discussion was organised with the objective of sharing of views regarding the kind of contribution this human resource could make to infrastructure development of the country, whether or not all the engineering graduates could get job within the country and the kind of technical and vocational education needed by the country in the days ahead.
In the discussion programme, the participants made an assessment of the environment of engineering education in the country and felt the need of charting out a new course.
They expressed concern over the increasing brain drain of engineers from the country which has led to shortage of engineering human resources of late.
Addressing the programme, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Bimalendra Nidhi said the government has given priority to job creation for engineers within the country.
He said engineers have an important role for the physical infrastructure development of the country and urged them to utilize their knowledge, skills and expertise for that purpose.
Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Tulasi Prasad Sitaula said the Ministry was planning to bring a new policy for quality physical infrastructure development.
Council chairman Satya Narayan Saha said it is about time to assess the contribution of engineers to the development of physical infrastructures and through that to the overall development of the country.
Council vice-chairman Binod Neupane talked about the code of conduct for engineers developed by the Council in a bid to maintain the professional ethics.
On the occasion, senior engineers Ishwar Raj Onta and Hareram Shrestha presented separate working papers on enhancing engineering education. RSS
