New Challenges in Technical Education in India

1. INTRODUCTION

India is one of the largest and densely populated countries in Asia. Total population of India is around 1200 million. India has many languages, many religions and many races. India has world famous attractions like one of the Seven Wonders of the World - 'The Taj Mahal'. Though the problems are many still India is one of the technically advanced countries in the South Pacific Asian Country. The status of technical education is given below. 


2. EXISTING SYSTEMS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

Technical Education in India is having 3 Tier - system
ITI- to produce grass root level technically trained manpower.
Diploma - to produce supervisor level technology trained manpower
Degree level - to produce engineer/designer/ analyst.


3. EXPANSION OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

During the last four decades, technical education has expanded beyond imagination in India. In the first three decades the intake was doubled in both diploma and degree levels. At present there is no percentage increase in conventional diploma level courses except in Electronics, Information Technology, Computers and other emerging technical areas.


4. AREAS OF SPECIALISATION Vs. INTAKE CAPACITY AT DEGREE LEVEL TECHNICAL INSTITUTION - PRESENT SCENARIO

From 1996 to 2003 the increase in Electronics has gone up from 21 to 23% whereas for computers this increase is from 15 to 23 %. Information Technology, which was not taught earlier, but now the level of around 20%. The production of traditional trades like mechanical(24-20), electrical (12-10%) and Civil (14-4%) has decreased.

Table 1
The intake capacity in degree and diploma courses are as follows:

Intake Capacity	1971	1981	1991	2002
Degree Courses	18000	35000	70000	350000
Diploma Courses	33000	61000	120000	243000

If the above trend continues, then the projection for 2005 is as follows:

Table 2
Department-wise Projection for year 2005

Department	No. of Graduates
Electronics	1, 25,000
Computer	1, 20, 000
Information Technology	1, 00, 000
Electrical	60, 000
Mechanical	50, 000
Civil	15, 000

5. NEW CHALLENGES TAKEN BY THE COUNTRY

Several new ideas are in the mind of the higher education/higher administration. A few of which are:

	Diverse requirement of society and user viz. industry, research and development ( R & D) organizations.
	Rapid evolution of technologies and technological innovation to cope up with western countries.
	Rapid changes in requirements of industries.
	Need to upgrade infrastructure facilities regularly to keep pace with changing needs.
	Developing academic excellence, production of high quality graduates in emerging technologies with the pool of resources available.
	Modernisation of laboratories considering high rate of equipment obsolescence and change in curriculum.
	To reduce cost for taking technical education to the young generations, coming from socially and economically backward classes.
	Dwindling government support for technical education further.
	Motivating talented graduates to be in teaching and research and providing facilities for higher studies at free of cost.
	Supporting continuous faculty updating in the wake of fast changing technologies.
	Continued pressure from the students and parents for delivering the state of the art in technical education delivery methodologies.
	Introducing distance education / e-learning processes.
	Taking technical education and vocational training on masses through specific skill oriented courses.
	MHRD initiatives - Community Polytechnic Scheme, PWD-system, TVET scheme.
	Encourage private investment in technical education.
	Quality Improvement Program(QIP), is introduced to maintain international standards in degree/diploma Institutes.
	Encouraging healthy competition between Private and Government Technical Institutions.
	Associating industry in the process of development of academic curriculum.
	Encouraging flexible entry and exit to the technical institution through multipoint entry and exit.

6. INDIA'S ACHIEVEMENT

Though India's population is very high approximately 1200 million still due adoption of new methodologies for technical skill development, the following achievement is required to be noted:

	Largest exporters of highly skilled technical manpower to USA and other developed countries - especially in IT sector.
	Highest pool of technical institutions for in-house development - establishing brand names like IITs, IIMs, IIITs, IISc, NITs, and NITTTRs.
	National monitoring and regulating bodies like AICTE for overall growth of technical education.
	Providing cost effective barriers solutions to multinationals coming here for offshore centre in IT and ITES.
	Encourage quality through establishment of accreditation system like NBA (AICTE) and NAAC (UGC).

7. CONCLUSION

India's progress in technical education is really impressive and we do hope this manpower and technical skills show subsequent progress in near future.