“Engineering Education in India” is the most crucial topic concerning various stakeholders such as the educationists, teachers, educational institutions, educational entrepreneurs, industry, students, and parents.
The topic has three distinctly sounding words namely: Engineering, education & India. We all would agree to the fact that all these three words are complete subjects in themselves and are uniquely different from each other and deserve to be dealt with separately and that too in their logical order. Also, we will concur over the fact that all the above three components have evolved in their own way since the time of their respective inception during the course of history.
Proceeding in reverse order, if we talk of India then India is an ancient country which has evolved through foreign invasion over the centuries, economic slavery, mingling with other cultures and deprivation of the masses. This has profound effect on the quality of manpower entering workforce. Next, considering education, this has evolved since the time of Lord Macaulay and has in built shortcomings in it. Then, Engineering has also evolved since industrial revolution in 1860 through successive phases of modernization. All the three components have interacted with each other and remain in continuous state of flux resulting in uncertainties.
Though all the three components have evolved throughout the history at different times and at different paces these are connected together by a common link. And that link is ‘infrastructure’.Infrastructure, as we know is fundamental to the socio-economic development of a nation. Thus, if the economic growth of India is the goal then, sound infrastructure is the instrument and engineering education is the process through which we can achieve that goal.
Thus, we conclude that if India is to shine like a star by 2030, it can be by the development of world-class infrastructure through ensuring the provision of quality education in engineering.
What has been done till now?
The impulse for creation of centers of technical training came from British Raj rulers. While superintending engineers were mostly recruited from Britain, lower grades e.g. craftsmen, artisans & sub-overseers were recruited locally. The necessity to make them more efficient led to establishment of industrial schools attached to Indian ordinance factories. The first engineering college was established in 1847 for training of civil engineers at Roorkee which later became IIT Roorkee. In 1856, three engineering colleges were opened in Bengal Presidency, Bombay Presidency & Madras Presidency. Since independence in 1947,Government of India, took development of Engineering education seriously and as a result there are 23 IITs (Indian Institute of Technology),31 number of NITs(National Institute of Technology),IIESTs(Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology),State govt. engineering colleges, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Institution of Engineers, Polytechnic Institutes & AICTE approved institute by the state.
Where is the Quality?
This is the question which is asked frequently nowadays. Engineering education in India is widely criticized for substandard quality. It is said that except IITs and a few NITs most engineering colleges are unable to provide education to students that will get them suitable jobs. The number of young engineers entering the labor market is on the increase but industries are unable to find appropriately skilled manpower and about 48% of Indian employers are worried that there is talent shortage.
This criticism must be taken in the right spirit. But there is no need to get disappointed or get drowned in the pool of pessimism. We must remember that we the people of India are known for their tough-minded optimism and our Indian freedom struggle is a testimony to that. Our leaders demonstrated that how with very little resources a nation can achieve its objective or solve its problems. Since they could do it, we also can do it. But, what is needed for that? The first thing is that we need to respond constructively to this valuable criticism/debate. We need to have an independent view, a critically analytical view of the scenario.
For the sake of simplified analysis, we should divide various types of engineering institutions into two broad categories and make a comparative analysis; on one hand there are IITs, NITs & the likes and on the other there are upcoming engineering colleges. Both the categories differ in various ways but their objective is one: to provide quality manpower to the workplaces in industry/infrastructure.
Now, coming to the aspects that these categories differ in; while the former is older, established & developed one the later is newer, upcoming, changing & continuously evolving. While the former employ a rigorous entrance test for selection of their students for the later there is no such tests. Though it is true that later does a commendable and praiseworthy job of making the technical education accessible to the rural students yet these students find it difficult to grasp technical education because of their poor pre-college level educational skills (e.g.arithmatic skills, linguistic skills, behavioral skills). These poor pre college level educational skills form the basis of student skill development program and must all the further programs for skill development.
The positive side of the rural students is that they are fresh, energetic, capable, aspirational, full of possibilities but the only point is that they need to be groomed as per the industrial standards. These students can be compared with the sand in desert. The sand in the desert is unable to grow crops not because it is infertile but because it has never been given access to water, manure & care. Once it comes in contact with all the three it starts yielding crops in unexpectedly.Thus, students if groomed rightly may come at par with the students from IITs, NITs.
How can we make it happen?
The skill institute vs. KSAER approach
With the ‘Skill India’ mission is on, the importance of skills is widely recognized. It is a fact that skills must form a very important component of attributes an engineer must possess. Some specialists recommend that an ‘engineering institute’ must be essentially a ‘skilling institute’. Yes! This can be a right approach towards imparting engineering education but over reliance on mere skill development only, would not lead to wholesome development of students.
An alternative, better & effective approach would be the KSAER approach which addresses all the essential parts of the set of attributes. The KSAER stands as follows:
K-Knowledge: Knowledge is power. Knowledge is foundation. Knowledge is food for the mind. Knowledge is cause for intelligence. Knowledge is the vehicle of confidence. Knowledge is the cement without which all the following four factors cannot be bound together in a student.
S-Skill: Skill is the ability to apply what is learnt.An intelligent student is quickly able to learn an idea but unless he is made to acquire the ability to apply that idea to its logical conclusion, he will not be able to deliver the results for the organization he works for and thus will not remain useful to the same.
A-Attitude: Attitude is a belief in oneself coupled with a desire to excel in work or in any endeavor. It is the critical, subtle, invisible factor inside a student which inspires and motivates him/her. This inside factor remains in an activated state in the students of category one institutions but needs to be consciously nurtured and activated in those of upcoming colleges. But, it is said that attitude accounts for 85% of successes in job interviews. It may seem an exaggeration, but even if we consider it to be 50%, the relative contribution of attitude towards success is substantially higher.
E-Efforts: Efforts are a direct function of student’s willingness to invest in his own success. They should learn from an ant that how it carries a tiny food grain to its ultimate destination against all odds.
R-Relationship: Relationship is a student’s connect with the external environment. It is about how he perceives the environment, learns from it and contributes towards it. In this context the simulation based learning and ‘learning by doing’ can be of great help.
Who can do it?
A team of qualified, competent, dynamic, self driven, result oriented teachers & amazing, happy enthusiastic, disciplined, students which believes in continual improvement as its mission will do it.
Therefore best wishes for Happy Engineering, Happy Education, Happy India & Happy Infrastructure.
Written By:
Sandeep Shastri
Assistant Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
SISTec Gandhinagar, Bhopal.
Sagar Group of Institutions®(SGIs) zests towards creating mindfully creative individuals who can contribute to the development of human community. As a part of this zeal, the group intends to promote entrepreneurial nerve in the budding scholars and involve in research and development through constructive partnership with the industry titans. The institutes also endeavour to develop individuals with scientific temperament through active participation of faculty and student interactions of B.Tech and M. Tech. SISTec in the coming years aims at bringing revolutionary changes in the field of technical education, so that it embraces itself as one of the top engineering colleges in India. Sagar Institute of Science & Technology (SISTec) has bagged the award of The Most Innovative College Award 2018 -North Zone. In 2018, Sagar Group of Institutions-SISTec has been selected for establishing Institution Innovation Council (IIC) at its premises by MHRD, Govt. of India.
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