Technical Education System in India

Mr. Sudhir K Agarwal

The 21st century industries are built on the 4. Students and the nation are suffering as
foundation of its engineers first and everything parties involved who solely aim to
else next. In the battle to bag the number one maximize their gains with little or no focus
position in industrial growth are many emerging on the quality of education.
nations like Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa 5. There is little accountability and
and of course India. Hence the question here is transparency in the value addition to
whether we are in the race is futile. What we students.
should really storm our brains at is the question- 6. As the level of college falls (from
“Are we on the right track to stand the 1 st IITs>NIITs>private), the quality of
position.” To this shall follow a methodical and technical education falls exorbitantly.
practical chain of observations and Consequently the pass outs from good
contemplation for the same. colleges end up at better jobs over those
The contemporary India is struggling hard from regional colleges. There is a high
to free itself from the shackles of corruption which statistical correlation between family
is a major retardation for its growth. background, good education and the future
Disappointingly education- the root to a budding earnings.
nation has also been petrified by this monster to Solutions
insurmountable extents. Education today is 1. Develop standards to promote uniform
looked upon as an area of investment by syllabus, pedagogy and training
professionals and corporate world instead as a methodologies, processes, and practices in
right of the citizens and fundamental duty of the imparting education.
government. This atrophy of ideology symbolizes 2. Eminent teaching institutions, industries
the whole story in no time. It is high time that and R&D organizations should actively
India realizes that a face-off is now crucial and guide institutes to address the present and
compulsory. future needs of the society.
Executive Summary 3. Corporate world which aims to milk the
Problems & Issues maximum benefit from students as
1. The current scenario of technical education professionals should cover education in
is highly paralyzed in India and calls for their outreach programs.
significant and immediate improvements. 4. Hybrid learning using present technology
2. There is a huge shortage of both qualified is the best solution to impart knowledge.
teachers and capable teachers. 5. Every student is one of its kinds and
3. An industry wants students employable pedagogy involved must have this
from day 1 but supports little during the flexibility in every institute private or
learning process. government.
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6. Educational institutes should not feel free staff and providing a learning environment by
of responsibility once a batch passes out having adequate facilities and well paid staff
rather should be more of a mentor than an members who are eager to help younger
instrument of simply awarding degrees generations in acquiring knowledge. On paper
throughout the curriculum and even post- these educational institutes are set up as non-
qualification period. Career paths of profit entities to serve the student community but
graduating students should be tracked for investors are using them as a cover to earn
first two years. abnormally high returns on their investments.
7. When an entrance exam segregates the It may actually be better if the educational
students on the basis of their scholastic and institutes are allowed to set up and operate like
mental aptitude the duty next is to see that other business entities. The intervention by
the institutes covering weaker students regulatory bodies and/or quality control by the
have adequate infrastructure, faculty, state approved universities have not served its
administration and labs. The focus should intended purpose. Mixing the goal of earning
be to bridge the gap between students of money by private investors and indirect
top most colleges and those from private administration that is not beyond the ambit of
colleges and to not widen the gap over the corrupt practices is a bad model. We should
course of time. instead let the market forces decide who should
8. A more control on the faculty to check they survive? There could be a government supported
impart the best of their wisdom in college national testing center and multiple agencies that
classes over promoting private tuitions and should evaluate students annually and provide
added advantage to students who do so. a ranking based on factors that will judge a
The corollary being have a well-educated student’s potential.
and most importantly well-paid faculty so Should everyone become an engineer?
that a situation like this becomes rare to I maintain that not all students should be
arise. encouraged to earn engineering, medical,
Background computer sciences or management degree. The
The current scenario of technical education ultimate output of technical education should be
in India needs a close examination by to prepare qualified students and provide the
educationists, policy makers, students and industry employable human resources. It is
parents. Students’ primary objective for obtaining highly recommended that students are counseled
an undergraduate engineering degree is to either in 8th and 9th grades and based on their
join the work force or pursue higher studies. Since performance judged by various measures they
mid 90s the Indian economy has been growing at should be encouraged to choose a field that suits
a very rapid pace leading to numerous job their aptitude, dreams and willingness to
opportunities for those willing to work. The contribute in future. It will help an individual to
developed countries have also focused their realize his true potential by having training and
attention on India to hire qualified, English a degree in an area that suits his personality. A
speaking, disciplined computer professionals to misfit person will not be able to contribute much
meet their growing demands. These factors have to work and he will live with a feeling of having a
created a huge shortage of specialized workers ‘paper’ degree that will instill a false pride of
especially computer professionals, engineers, becoming something that he is not. It will also
managers and doctors. In response to the create obstacles in pursuing other avenues in
situation, the Indian policy makers opened the which he/she would have been successful.
flood gates to private investors to set up Imagine a person with an engineering degree
educational institutes. But here lies the problem. working at a call center! It is important that the
The critical elements in providing quality policy makers keep a close tab on the end product
education are the availability of good teaching coming out of an institute. One of the factors that
Year-4, Vol-1, ISSN 2395-4612 Parimarsh 103

should weigh heavily in any certification process undergraduate/graduate teachers to conduct

should be how are students doing after classes may not be entirely rooted in
graduation? How many graduating students logic. Everyone knows the shortage of qualified
have really been able to get a job in commensurate faculty staff in prestigious institutes, universities
with their qualifications? and private colleges. And the reasons for such a
Training Human Brain shortage are obvious to everyone but nobody has
Training a human brain is the most difficult the courage to address this serous issue. It is not
task and teaching is one of the most challenging a rocket science to estimate the availability of
professions. Teaching in ancient times was done teaching staff in the country, in a state, or in a
by learned Rishis who dedicated their lives to geographical area. Faculty shortage does not
their pupils. They created a teaching and learning allow organizing regular faculty development
environment that produced some of the best programs, teachers’ training, or teachers’
minds in the human civilization. Unfortunately, participation in technical workshops and
in the present era, the teaching profession has conferences.
become one of the least preferred career choices. Teachers cannot be created out of thin air.
When you come across a teacher in an Teaching must be one of the highest paid
Engineering institute who has very poor professions and teachers must be respected for
communication skills and/or has superficial dedicating their lives for a great cause. Only then
understanding of fundamentals, one can easily will great minds be attracted to teaching and
imagine the scene in the class room. One cannot creativity and innovation will take place at the
help but sympathize with those students who learning centers. Let us not forget that a teacher,
take the trouble of attending classes. Exposing at times, has to deal with the most heterogeneous
students before incompetent teachers may cause mix of students. This is particularly true for
negative impact and disincentive to learning private institutes which go at great lengths to fill
process. Teaching requires a thorough every seat to maximize their profit. It is an uphill
understanding of the subject matter, ability to task to teach students who have somehow
connect dots, explaining concepts in a manner managed to get admission in an institute. One
that students can easily grasp and relate to things, cannot entirely blame the teachers for not
experiences and images that neurons easily producing good quality graduates as they have
remember and will not forget. It requires a lot of to work with the students that are admitted to an
preparation, perseverance and the strength to institute. These students have already completed
deal with unexpected and unpredictable at least 12 years of primary and secondary
situations in conducting a class. A teacher should education and should have acquired sufficient
be able to create an environment conducive for knowledge and skills to get admission for higher
igniting the spark, feed hungry minds, take them learning. Quality teachers are in short supply even
away from darkness towards light and expose in primary and secondary education system. It is
students to techniques, tools, methods and important to identify weaknesses in this
processes. Training human minds is a serious education chain starting from Kindergarten and/
business and teachers play an important role in or Grade 1 and actions must be taken to correct
making the venture successful. the problems at the earliest stage of learning.
Teachers, Teachers & Teachers Great Institutions & Their Role in Training
Best education is by the knowledgeable and Human Brain
skilled teachers who can connect with students. In India, everyone agrees that IITs and IIMs
But how many good teachers can one find? There are the best institutes in the country. Without
is a shortage of teachers. Speaking from a getting into the debate on reasons for their lower
neurological perspective, our frontal lobe (governs ranking in the international arena, one must
decision making) is not formed until age 25, review their contributions in adding value to their
therefore expecting inexperienced and fresh students. These institutes get the most brilliant
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minds in the world. They admit students who marks from different universities. One university
are highly motivated for learning and hungry for can give easy question paper and be lenient in
knowledge. One has to ask if this group really marking answer sheets.
needs conventional one-way teaching. Books, The whole concept of absolute marks,
professional magazines and the information percentage marks or GPA is faulty in a
available on the internet provide students good competitive world. Instead, it is better to place
references that they can easily use to acquire students in percentile bands: 100%, 95%, 90% and
domain knowledge. The contribution of these so on. Using the statistical tools, every examining
institutes should really be measured by the quality entity (normally a university who awards the
and quantity of research done, degree of degree) should place its students in these bands.
interaction with the industry, encouragement A student who is in 90% band implies that his
level to use creativity and brilliant minds to solve performance is better than 90% students who are
real problems to benefit the society, number of in his group. It still doesn’t solve the problem
entrepreneurs made, level of mentoring and when this ranking is provided by different
academic support provided to other institutes, universities but at least it provides a relative
and the willingness to make their labs, facilities measure of student success in comparison to their
and teachers available to all those who will like own cohort. The larger issue of intra-institution
to do some serious developmental and research comparisons can be addressed either by
work. conducting a national level exam or assigning
Examinations, Marks and their Validity ranking factor to each university. For example, if
At the end of the day, a student will have to University X has a ranking factor of 95 and the
pass examinations with good marks to earn a University Y has a ranking factor of 90, then
degree in order to prove his/her learning abilities. students from both universities can be ranked
The whole purpose of an exam is to rank students together using these ranking factors. It should be
based on their knowledge of the subject matter. noted that assigning a ranking factor to a
That being said one can question the validity of a university is not an easy task.
three hour final examination to measure a Recruitment Process
student’s grip on the subject matter. There are Once a student earns a degree then he/she
many variables that can influence the marks that will like to get a proper job in which he can make
a student obtains. Some of these factors are well use of his knowledge. The recruitment process
known: difficulty of the question paper, deviations can vary among companies but most of the
in the format of the question paper from previous companies use a combination of the following
exams, selection of topics from which questions five tests:
are asked, student’s mental, medical and physical 1. Aptitude test
health, arrangements and preparedness of 2. Technical test
examination venues, familiarity with the venue 3. Technical interview
surroundings, and marking of the question 4. Group discussion
papers. 5. HR interview
One has to accept inherent human errors The first two tests are used as a filtering
in this entire process and it is fair to assume that process to create a small set of students who are
these errors will affect most of the examinees. given a chance to interact with the interviewers
There are some factors such as selecting less in person. The main focus of an interviewer is to
competent or disinterested staff to frame question judge the soft skills of the interviewees. They want
papers and to grade answer sheets coupled with to see how well a student can interact with his/
loose quality controls that can influence a student her team members and how adaptable he/she is
marks. Even if the examination process is free to learning newer technologies.
from errors and omissions, it is difficult to Every company has its own training
compare students having the same percentage of program which may use a small fraction of the
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knowledge acquired during the course. The four What Should Be Done
year period really prepares a student to join the Improving the quality of education is a very
work force by transforming him/her an complex issue. There are many factors, such as
independent being capable of self-learning and family back ground, primary and secondary
managing tasks and people. It also helps him to education and availability of resources that
work on his non academic skills that become influence how a student learns in his
increasingly important as he/she starts climbing undergraduate classes. This paper is not
up the corporate ladder. This is the place where intended to cover the entire learning spectrum. I
one can dream, shape and discuss them with have covered a very narrow window in this
others. As long as the student can speak spectrum and it may be applicable to students
who want to become an engineer or a computer
intelligently, understand the lingo of the subject
scientist.
matters and participate in discussions with
Strict Monitoring of Substandard Institutes
others, recruiters will be seriously interested to
The main problem is the shortage of good
test his other skills and offer him a job. Students
teachers created by explosive growth of
with positive attitude, good communication skills, educational institutes without paying attention
superior English speaking capabilities and to the availability of qualified and experienced
showing a genuine interest in learning current teachers. Institutes were allowed to open and are
and newer techniques are likely to be chosen over still operating with insufficient faculty members.
others. Since it is impossible to create qualified teachers
Is the Recruitment Process Fair in a short span of time, institutes with substandard
This does not mean, however, that the staff and/or insufficient staff should be issued
recruitment process is not without its warnings to correct the situation. Appropriate
shortcomings. HR managers have their actions without harming students should be
preferences to visit campuses from a list of several taken if no progress is made during stipulated
hundred institutes and at times their selection is time. Bad management and bad teachers are
governed by factors other than an institute’s injurious to health and wealth of a nation. They
ranking or student’s merit. Why they visit one simply drive the good people out of circulation.
institute and not others in the same region which Instead e-learning and teaching should be
has similar group of students, same syllabus, encouraged to fill the widening gap between the
same examination process cannot be explained supply and demand of qualified teachers.
unless one takes into account the connections and All the financial statements, documents
relationships that might have developed with the certifying availability of faculty members and
institute and its owners. One cannot deny the staff, facilities in labs must be signed by the people
exchange of favors among several players who control finances and are the real owners and
operators of the institute. They should be held
involved in the hiring process: institute
accountable for any financial discrepancies.
management, recruiters and consultants who at
Involvement of people who have no interest in
times act as middlemen between the recruiters
education must be stopped.
and management. Hosting recruiting companies
National/International Standards in Education
and giving them a guest treatment is one thing A national body should develop standards
but giving favors to recruiters is another thing. It to promote uniform syllabus, teaching and
is still not clear if the top management of learning methodologies, processes, and practices
recruiting companies will act or just turn a blind in imparting education to students. Eminent
eye when confronted with these unacceptable teaching institutions, industries and R&D
practices. Companies indulging in these unlawful organizations should actively guide in updating
activities are hurting themselves as they are self- standards to both address the current and future
limiting their selection of quality students. needs of the society. Participation of international
106

players should be welcome to prepare students No Paper Degrees

to compete in global work force. This will help Teaching involves interacting with
students, immensely teachers and lab staff to students. Part time post graduate degrees or
easily access information from qualified and doctorate degrees are not very effective in learning
knowledgeable sources. With the help of current how to conduct classes and interact with students
technology students will be able to attend lectures in a live session. Technology cannot completely
of the best teachers available on internet. This replace teachers in undergraduate classes.
will facilitate exchange of ideas beyond the four Teachers should be allowed to join only full time
walls of a class room. Implementation of post graduate programs. Unfortunately some
standards is not intended to discourage those institutes are allowed to offer post graduate
institutes who want to cover more grounds or degrees to students without having qualified staff
provide in depth knowledge to their students. and research facilities. After completing their
National Level Testing – Equal Opportunities degrees they will get promotions and increments
for Everyone which they do not deserve. Awarding a ‘paper’
Students who believe that they have the degree not only dilutes the importance of higher
right capabilities but are denied of opportunities education but it can start a chain reaction in
get their first taste of corporate favoritism. Also it which a non deserving teacher who gets the
is not easily defendable to use criteria that exclude ‘paper degree’ follows the similar methods for
institutes based on the number of past batches, his students. It is very likely that teachers who
batch size and factors that have no or very weak did not work hard for earning their degrees will
relation with the final year students. Let each take a very casual approach towards teaching.
company administer a test on a national level Teaching and learning is a serious business and
and use it to select students for further rounds of the stakes are very high for all stakeholders:
interviews specific to company needs. Companies students, business entities, communities, society,
can pool their resources to conduct such a test or states, countries and the world.
It is important that tough screening
use nationally recognized tests.
methods should be applied to select a teacher.
Computers and the internet make it
National institutes with a focus on research
possible to conduct these tests without
should play an important role by administering
committing significant resources either by the
tests to rank teachers who want to earn a PhD.
institutes or by the recruiting companies. Syntel
Teachers engaged in research should be
is one company that has successfully used
encouraged to publish at least one third of their
computerized tests in an unsupervised
papers in refereed journals and actively
environment. Making results of these tests public
participate in technical committees formed to
will be helpful to the students, faculty members,
discuss the major findings of the research work.
management, university, AICTE and other
Monitoring of an Institute is a Must
regulatory bodies to check the ‘employability Regular monitoring of every educational
health’ of graduating students. Institutes who are institute including the universities should be
consistently performing poor should be done by experts randomly chosen from a pool.
thoroughly examined for their teaching quality. These experts must not receive monetary
National institutes such as IITs and IIMs can also compensation, gift or other favors from the
play a very important role by administering tests institutes that they inspect. Their report should
to rank students. These tests can be scheduled be made public and made available on the
twice a year and both final and pre final year internet. Both students and parents can decide if
students should be allowed to appear for these they have chosen the right institute for their future
tests. Tests such as TOEFL, GRE and GMAT studies. Every teacher should be issued a unique
conducted by foreign agencies can also be used identification that will help track his/her
as screening tools by recruiting companies. association with an institute. This will also help
Year-4, Vol-1, ISSN 2395-4612 Parimarsh 107

in curbing current practices of using ghost having students copy the old lab manuals and
teachers and using the same person as a faculty assignments. Conducting experiments, working
member at multiple places. on projects and undergoing a practical training
Teachers should be Paid Handsomely are must to gain practical knowledge and to
Teachers’ salary should be the major implement some of the ideas into working models.
component of the operating expenditure of an No degree should be awarded unless a student
institute. A teacher salary should be based on the has shown sufficient practical knowledge in his/
following factors: her chosen field. More attention should be paid
• Prevailing compensation in the industry, by the institutes and the University to ensure that
• Fees collected from each student, students complete their experiments that are
• Students to teachers ratio, properly evaluated. Those institutes who do not
• Experience and qualifications. have sufficient facilities or do not want to commit
If we want to improve the teaching quality, enough resources should be asked to financially
teachers need to be paid comparable if not higher support outside labs where students can perform
than their colleagues in the industry. In many experiments.
institutes most of the teachers with several years For projects and practical training, active
of experience are earning less than what their support from private, public and government
students will be offered right after graduation. owned industries should be made available to
This must change. There is no justification to not every student. Industry needs to engage and
offer better financial incentives to a person who support educational institutes for ultimately it is
wants to be an educationist. A professor deserves they who are going to be impacted by the quality
same financial rewards as top level managers in of students. HR managers complain about
a private industry. The registrar, the financial students not being ‘employable’ but their
controller and all those who are involved in companies are not very willing to commit their
running an institute deserve the same package resources for the student training during his
as those who are performing similar functions in studies. An agency at the university level to
private sectors. An independent national agency facilitate project work and practical training of
may be formed whose sole purpose is to monitor each student should be created. The agency will
teachers: their qualifications, achievements and provide at least three choices to each student and
salaries. will monitor the progress.
Coaching Centers – A Big No Hybrid learning: This is the Future- a Boon to
A large number of coaching centers have Global Education System
sprung up in the vicinity of many engineering E-learning must be allowed as an
institutes. These coaching centers offer same alternative to conventional class room teaching.
courses that are taught in the institutes. This More interaction is needed between students and
trend is very disturbing and it is not clear if these teachers in discussing problems and solutions
coaching centers impart knowledge to students during lab and tutorial periods. One of the
except prepare them for passing examinations. arguments against e-learning is that students are
Regular teachers should not be allowed to teach not ready to learn unless they are taught in a
in these coaching centers. traditional class room. There is no scientific
Labs & Practical Training research to prove that other teaching methods are
One of the disturbing trends in education inferior to traditional class room teaching. How
at almost all levels is that tutorial and laboratory one can even make a claim unless an alternative
hours are hardly engaged for any useful activities. method has been tested with sufficient data?
While teaching staff blames management for lack The University should relax the attendance
of facilities in the labs and students blame lack of criteria for students who plan to enroll in e-
interest of teaching and lab staff, the fact of the classes. The electronically
matter is that these hours are simply wasted by supported learning and teaching (such as web-
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based learning, computer-based learning, virtual encourage students to ‘visualize’ and

education opportunities and digital ‘internalize’ by including real life examples. The
collaboration) using the latest technology can be contents should be widely distributed at no
effectively used to provide domain knowledge to charge. Printed copies can be made available at
students. These self-paced or instructor-led nominal charges to cover the actual costs.
courses using various media such as text, image, Students can be evaluated by testing centers
animation, streaming video and audio will not operated under the aegis of an independent
only save the commuting time for a student but national testing agency.
will provide superior teaching ways. Students NVC will be in a unique position to
can review a topic as many times as needed. The provide an exchange of ideas between industry
e-learning allows a student to join a global experts, teachers and students using the
community of thousands of students who are also computers, internet and mobile communication.
learning along with him/her. The main emphasis will be on problems solving,
e-Learning fostering a team spirit, developing
Industry experts and academicians under communication skills, exchanging ideas while
the sponsorship of MHRD, UGC, AICTE and solving some real life problems and taking
other government agencies should develop a advantage of huge amount of resources available
syllabus for each subject. NCERT prescribed through the worldwide web.
syllabus and books provide a very good starting Leveraging technology and using
point in pursuit of knowledge. The syllabus innovative ways should help both students and
should be followed throughout the country. This teachers in imparting knowledge and in
makes it easy to operate a National Virtual connecting dots. The emphasis of education
Campus (NVC) that can offer high quality but should be on providing an environment for
flexible teaching and learning environment. The organic learning to make the society better and
contents and syllabus should be continually pursue higher goals.
updated to make learning simple, fun and 

References

• Education is my only identity as a human being…

• Education Enlightens. Education Empowers. Education Innovates.
• Education is the best gift that we can exchange among ourselves.
• Education molds not one but many generations to come.
• Corruption in education is worse than prostitution and is dehumanizing.
• President of India on Higher Education Appendix A
• Prez calls for “drastic action” to reform higher education system
• Last Updated: Tuesday, April 09, 2013, 17:14
• Tags: Pranab Mukherjee, Education, Education system
• Kurukshetra (Har): President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday called for “drastic action” to reform
the way education is being imparted in universities and institutes of higher learning in the
country.
• “Our institutes of higher education continue to be challenged by problems of quality. An
international survey indicated that there is not a single Indian university amongst the top 200
universities in the world. This calls for drastic action to reform the way education is imparted in
our universities and academic institutes,” Mukherjee said while addressing the 10th convocation
of National Institute of Technology at Kurukshetra.
Year-4, Vol-1, ISSN 2395-4612 Parimarsh 109

• He said quality, affordability, and accessibility should become the mainstay of the country’s
higher education system.
• “We must take higher education, including technical education, to the doorstep of our people
by innovations in the delivery system,” Mukherjee said.
• Expressing concerns over the shortage of faculty across all types of institutes of higher education,
the President said existing vacancies should be filled up “quickly”.
• He also asked teachers to update themselves with the latest information in their respective
academic fields.
• “Our universities and institutes must encourage and facilitate their teachers participation in
international seminars, refreshers courses and project work,” Mukherjee said.
• Lamenting that the country was lagging far behind in the field of innovation, Mukherjee said,
“India’s innovation balance sheet is not very encouraging. In 2011, 42,000 patents were filed in
our country, compared to over five lakh applications filed each in China and the US in the same
year.”
• As per a recent Forbes survey, only three Indian companies have been listed amongst the world’s
most innovative companies, he said, adding the number will increase if the process of innovation
is made a permanent feature in our institutions of learning.
• “Our universities, engineering colleges and research and development centres should be the
hotbed of innovations,” Mukherjee said.
• “Talent in academic and research positions in our institutions are difficult to retain due to lack
of adequate flexibility in our system. Our system must be geared to discourage any loss of
intellectual capital and at the same time welcome overseas scholars including NRIs and Persons
of Indian origin to return to the country,” the President said.
• Such an initiative will enable transmission of ideas and new methods of teaching and research
from abroad to India.
• “Academia-industry linkages must be strengthened to include industry’s perspective in research
and to drive market benefits from innovations,” he added.
• PTI
• For Zee News’s Updates, follow us on Twitter , Facebook, Google+, Pinterest
• First Published: Tuesday, April 09, 2013, 17:14

PhD, General Reliability,

San Diego California, USA
Former Director,
Oriental Institute of Science & Technology (OIST),
Bhopal, India & Echelon Institute Technology (EIT),
Faridabad, India