Revamp of engg courses on cards

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to revamp technical-education courses in 10 different streams to make them more industry-friendly.

R.A. Yadav, vice-chairman, AICTE, told the Hindustan Times: “Earlier this month, we constituted 10 boards to come up with new syllabi for information technology (IT) and engineering courses, keeping in mind job prospects in the near future."

The revamp is also aimed at attracting more students to new streams in IT education. There will be greater collaboration with industry, and more stress on practical job training.

Headed by senior academicians like Dr M.M. Faroqui, former vice-chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, the boards preparing the new syllabi also have representatives from IT and related industries. NASSCOM is expected to work on the basic drafts for the All India Board of IT Education.

The new syllabi are likely to be introduced from the next academic year in all technical-education institutes directly under the AICTE’s control. They can act as ‘model’ syllabi, which can then be adopted by technical institutes under the control of state governments. “Since technical education is a state subject, we cannot enforce the syllabus all over the country,” said an HRD Ministry official.

The move to evolve new syllabi comes in the wake of severe criticism of technical-education standards in the country by the industry. Recently, NASSCOM, which represents the IT industry, said most IT professionals from Indian institutes needed re-training after employment before they could be assigned tasks.

Sam Pitroda, chairman, National Knowledge Commission, has also stressed on the need to improve technical-education syllabi.