Call for Advancement in India’s Technical Education
Only 9.3 percent of Indian youth ages 17 to 23 are currently receiving technical education, a figure sagging far below the average in countries like China and the United States. If the Indian workforce is going to continue to attract the attention of global IT companies, the country will need to accelerate its technical universities and nationwide technical education plans.
This is precisely the point made by the All India Council Technical Education (AICTE), convening at Chennai for the Indian Society for Technical Education’s (ISTE) state-level annual convention. The Council’s Vice Chairman, R.A. Yadav, spoke on the subject, encouraging technical institutions across the nation to band together in order to combat the ubiquitous deficiencies. In a field such as technology, it is particularly important that education programs are updated in order to match today’s constantly evolving field.
“We are going to step into the future, which will be fully IT driven, globally integrated and vibrant. The need of the hour is to get updated, change faster and have a competitive edge,” Yadav urged. His sentiments were matched by those of N.R. Shetty, the President of ISTE, who pointed out that the enormous youth population of India will only remain in demand if technical institutions can offer quality education.
At the same time, in Chunkankadai, the former chairman of AICTE, S. Rame Gowda, offered advice for those who have been able to receive a technical education. Inaugurating the National Technical Symposium ‘Vision 2006′ at Vins Engineering College, Gowda praised the work ethic of students from rural areas, noting that those who come from poor economic background are often inspired to ahcieve more via their technical education. He wants Indian youth to aim higher than the many positions available at burgeoning call centers, explaining that these jobs are a waste of valuable skills. The potential in the Indian youth population is clearly present, but it is prevented from fulfillment by a currently inadequate network of technical education programs.
On the other hand, the situation, as it stands, doesn’t look terribly rosy. In his address at the National Technical Symposium, A.K. Patabi Raman of Tata Consultancy Services noted that only a fraction of engineering graduates were judged employable by major companies and receiving placements. Tata Group, for example, only hired 15 percent of those students graduating from India’s most prestigious educational institutions, such as Anna University.
In order to combat this problem, the Chancellor of Sathyabhama Deemed University suggested that Anna University should implement dual degree courses for technical students in all of its affiliated institutions. This might be one solution, but until the country can obtain more qualified teachers, talk of expanding current programs can be little more than just that: talk. It might be time for India’s education establishment to reexamine the possibility of foreign direct investment universities, so that the brightest potential educators—as well as engineers—stop leaving the country.