COIMBATORE: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked faculty and students of technical education institutions to refer to books written by Indian authors. This comes along the line of initiatives taken by the apex regulatory body to improve overall quality of technical education in the country.
The launch of model curriculum for UG and PG courses in engineering and technology by Minster of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar this January was one such initiative. This model curriculum has already been adopted by many universities and institutions from this academic year, said AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe in a letter to the vice-chancellors and registrars of technical universities and principals of technical institutions.
In the same breath, for the benefit of students pursuing courses in engineering disciplines, books by Indian authors and publishers have been suggested by a committee of eminent experts, as per model curriculum of AICTE. “I believe that these books, drawing from the experience of Indian authors and contextualised to Indian settings, will definitely aid the students in better learning of the concepts and in turn improve their quality,” he added.
These books need more encouragement among students and teachers; this interest will prompt many Indian authors to pen new technical books and in new areas too, augmenting the horizon of technical education in the Indian scenario, he opined.He also requested V-Cs, registrars and principals to impress upon faculty and students the need to refer to books by Indian authors and publishers available on AICTE website.
AICTE, in February came out with a list of books written by Indian authors and publishers. This included basic science, engineering science, humanities and social science subjects, which the students will be studying in the first year, and specific engineering books.