In recent years, studies have revealed that only 15-20 per cent of engineering graduates are employable in India. There are reports suggesting that thousands of engineering graduates are applying for Group-IV jobs and about engineers working in courier service companies. This clearly reflects the status of quality of our engineering colleges. While there could be many reasons for this state of affairs, there cannot be two opinions about the need to substantially improve the quality of teaching and learning in engineering colleges.
How do we assess the quality of teaching? Devising a meaningful assessment process is a monumental task. If we can define the quality of engineering education in terms of attainment of certain instructional or behavioural objectives, then we can certainly devise a system to measure the degree to which the students have acquired those objectives.
How do we arrive at a set of behavioural objectives? There are certain attributes that characterise good engineering graduates. A BE/BTech graduate is expected to be rational and pragmatic, be innovative, have a professional outlook with capability to work in a team, communicate effectively, exercise responsibilities as a leader, shoulder wider professional responsibilities, and operate ethically within appropriate codes of conducts.
It is, therefore, imperative to put in place well-formulated instructional objectives that can help teachers prepare lecture and assignment schedules, and facilitate construction of in-class activities, take-home assignments and tests. This would help students know what is expected of them and be able to meet the desired expectations.
Education is a two-way process involving two sets of participants: teachers who impart knowledge and students who absorb knowledge. Education is also about students imparting knowledge to their teachers, by challenging the teachers’ assumptions and by asking questions the teachers had not previously thought of. It is obvious, therefore, we need not only the teachers to be paragons of teaching but also the students to be paragons of learning.
How many teachers in our engineering colleges can be called ‘paragons’ of teaching? An exponential growth of engineering colleges has resulted in an acute shortage of qualified teachers. Over 40 per cent of teaching positions are vacant and majority of the available teachers do not know how to teach. Recently, at a seminar for teachers, I found 95 per cent of them did not know anything about Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Many were not even aware of popular teaching/learning methods and techniques such as simulation and gaming, case studies, problem-based learning, active learning, co-operative learning and application-based learning. The biggest challenge today is getting teachers who can really teach what would lead to effective learning.
We need to do two things urgently to improve the quality of our engineering graduates. The first is to put in place a National Strategy for Teacher Development for technical education. We must develop teachers with a set of attributes that are essential to perform their duties effectively.
The second is to improve the quality of input to the engineering colleges. No process can convert a donkey into a horse. The cut-off for admission into engineering colleges must be restored to at least 50 per cent and perhaps an aptitude test may be made mandatory.
Finally, the college managements should play a proactive role in providing benevolent and ethical leadership. They should change their role from exploiters to facilitators.
Balagurue@yahoo.co.in
The writer is former V-C, Anna University and ex-Member, UPSC