Indian students who perform poorly in school must take advantage of the numerous government-funded skills training programmes, said a sociologist today.

At present, Yayasan Strategic Social (YSS) executive director Dr Denison Jayasooria said, the youths fail to do so and end up working as unskilled workers with meagre incomes.

Many Indian students, both in rural and urban areas, failed to apply for these programmes as they lacked information and at the same time were not motivated to master new skills.

To address the problem, YSS, the social arm of MIC, was reaching out to rural and urban school-leavers to encourage them to enrol in these courses, he told Bernama .

"MIC and YSS are trying to draw young people to give them an alternative to learn skills. The skills will give them higher salaries or they can even start their own business.

"About 30 per cent of Indian students in the school system do not get good results. They are under-achievers," he said.

"We (Indians) can secure about 1,000 places in four major training institutions but overall in the country only 300 students apply," he added.

More opportunities, few takers

Jayasooria said there were various government-backed programmes - where courses were offered free with accommodation provided and allowance of RM100 given to each student - yet few Indian youths applied.

He urged social, religious and political organisations and even the police to help disseminate information to youths regarding the programmes offered by government institutions nationwide.

He said poor achievers in schools did not receive proper information on career advancement as they seldom read newspapers or watched the right television programmes.

They missed the advertisements for course intakes that appeared in Tamil or Malay newspapers and remained unaware of the valuable training opportunities available to them to acquire new skills that could help them secure well-paid jobs, he added.

"Hence, they are unable to compete in the increasingly tough labour market."

He said as part of the social engineering programme to uplift the economic status of the Indian community, the foundation had set a target to ensure that some 1,000 Indian youths enter skills training institutes for the 2007 intake.

"There are more opportunities now but few takers. Information (on courses) is not reaching the target group and poor performers are often demotivated to pursue further education. They are completely discouraged.

"Technically, no Indian youth should say 'I don't have the money to go for skills training'. The government is providing enough opportunities. We need social preparations," he added.

At least five major government institutions offer a range of technical training. They are Giat Mara, Arumugam Pillai Industrial Training Institute, Japan-Malaysia Technical Institute, National Youth Skills Institute and Community College.