BHUBANESWAR: The proposed National Education Policy (NEP) has all the ingredients to address issues affecting technical education in the country, said Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe on Friday.
Attending the national conference on “Crisis in Technical Education” at SOA University as chief guest, Sahasrabudhe said focus today is more on quantity and less on quality. “NEP will address this issue as the new policy would focus on examination reforms.”
In the reformed examination system, 30 per cent of the questions will be from textbooks and the rest 70 per cent will centre around innovation and creativity among other things, he said.
Sahasrabudhe emphasised on the need for a collaboration between industries and technical institutions to create socially responsible skilled manpower.
He also stressed on revision of curriculum to make it relevant to suit the need of the day. “Around 40 per cent of the jobs available in several domains today would disappear making it imperative for the system to train students accordingly,” he said.
The AICTE Chairman said good infrastructure and enrolment of students alone will not ensure quality technical education if the teaching-learning process is not given attention.
Former Chairman of AICTE and Chairman of SOA Advisory Board Prof Damodar Acharya said shortage of competent faculty, inability of the system to produce skilled, competent and employable graduates had eroded the attractiveness of engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture education.
The two-day conference was jointly organised by SOA and Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), New Delhi, as part of 49th ISTE National Annual Faculty Convention.
Six eminent persons from the world of technical education in India including Prof MK Surappa and PM Khodke were inducted as honorary fellows of ISTE on the occasion. SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof Amit Banerjee also spoke.