 POSITION PAPER FOR THE 
WORKING GROUP

I INTRODUCTORY

The last half of this century has transformed our environment, perhaps radically, and brought more changes in our lives and thinking than in any corresponding period in history. These are the consequences of discoveries of sciences and applications of technology. The concept of absolute knowledge in the sense of storing all knowledge is perhaps no more relevant today. Our efforts for reconciling the traditional concepts and ways with the demands of technological age cannot provide simple solutions for our difficulties and complexities based on such stored knowledge. Frontiers of knowledge are themselves expanding rapidly making it possible to device newer and more efficient methods of solving problems of the society. Education must therefore make efforts for securing knowledge and mastering modern skills and methods than merely storing and distributing the traditional ones. For this purpose of training of mind and mastering of skills and for harnessing science and technology to profitable and productive processes of economic growth and social well-being, the technological education system has to be continuously reviewed and adopted. This has indeed been the basis of our efforts during the last three decades, the result is that there is a well-organised structure and a wide network of technical intsitutions offering different types of programmes: craftsman courses, technician (diploma) courses, graduate and post- graduate courses, etc., catering to the various levels of knowledge, skills and competences required by the economy.

II REVIEW OF THE PRESENT POSITION

CRAFTSMEN COURSES: FACILITIES AVAILABLE

(1) Vocational Training - Training is inparted in 32 Engi- neering and 22 non-engineering trades approved by the National Council for Training in Vocational Trades to young people within the age group of 15 to 25 years. For this purpose 357 Industrial Training Institutes with an overall capacity of 1,55,000 training places have been established in the various parts of the country. Period of training ranges from 1 year to 2 years. The Industrial Training Institutes are also used as Basic Training Centres for the Apprenticeship Training Programmes under the Apprentices Act 1961. The 103 trades designated under the Apprentices Act follow our national classification of occupations and cover 216 industries.

Craft Instructor Training - There are seven Central Training Institutes for training of Instructors under the Directorate General of Employment and Training. These Institutes conduct regular, refresher and retraining programmes for the Craft Instructors in various engineering and non-engineering trades. The Instructor- trainees are deputed mostly by the various Industrial Training Institutes and Industrial Establishments in the country.

At the end of the last dacede, it was realised that higher or advanced levels of skills were required by the industry both in Public and Private sectors for working on the more modern and highly specialised type of machine tools and equipment coming to be used extensively. To meet this need the following institutes have been established:-

(i) Advanced Training Institute, Madras-The advanced Training Institute, Madras, imparts training in Advanced Vocational skills such as Tool Design, Tool and Die-Making, Heat Treatment, Metallurgy, Machine Tool Maintenance and Advanced Welding etc.

(ii) Foreman Training Institute, Bangalore - The Foreman Training Institute, Bangalore imparts training not only in developing further skills but also in managerial skills for first line supervisors.

(iii) Central Staff Training and Research Institute, Calcutta-The Central Staff Training and Research Institute set up at Calcutta is charged with the responsibitiy of conducting training programmes for officers and staff of the Central and State Governments and from industry, who control, regulate and direct Vocational and Apprenticeship Training Programmes. This Institute is also involved in the Research and Developmental activities in the field of voca- tional Training.

(iv) Advanced Training Institute in Electronics, Hyderabad-The Advanced Training Institute in Electronics, Hyderabad, has been set up last year to provide training at Craftsmen and Technician level for the electronic personnel required in the country.

TECHNICIAN COURSE: FACILITIES AVAILABLE

(2) Post-Matric Technical Education - Diploma level courses for the training of middle level man power needed for a wide range of professional duties, for application of knowledge in field operation, in production and construction, testing and development etc., and such functions are offered in 291 polytechincs with an annual enrolment capacity of about 50,000 students. They offer a variety of specialization in engineering and technology as well as in a few non- technological fields. The list of courses offered at these institutions is placed at Annexure 'A'. The courses are normally of three years duration where full-time institutional instruction is offered and 31/2 to 4 years when instruction is on a Sandwich or on part-time basis. Recently a number of diversified courses and facilities for evening part-time education have also been provided in some polytechnics situated in metropolitan cities where the demand for such courses exists.

About two dozen Women Polytechnics with courses of special interest to, and employment potential for, women, have also been established, particularly to cater to the needs of the socially/ economically inhibited classes who might be reluctant to take advantage of the facilities generally available in the regular polytechnics.

The products of the diploma courses are expected to take up supervisory positions in field and industry.

DEGREE LEVEL: FACILITIES AVAILABLE

(3) Degree level-For the professional engineers and techno- logists, facilities for technical education are available in 141 engi- neering colleges offering courses leading to the award of Bachelor Degree in Engineering and Technology. The total admission capacity annually for these courses is of the order of 25,000. The types of courses at these institutions is given in Annexure 'B'. The duration of most of these degree courses is five years and with the new pattern of Secondary Education of 10+2, it is expected to change over completely by 1981-82 to a duration of four years.

POST-GRADUATE COURSES: FACILITIES AVAILABLE

(4) Post-Graduate Courses-For the benefit of those who have higher level academic achievements as also for under taking research and development activities in engineering and technology, post- graduate courses have been offered widely in the various selected institutions offering degree courses. The number of the institutions offering such post-graduate courses is 65 with an annual intake capacity of about 2,000. The types of courses offered are listed in Annexure 'C'. These courses normally lead to the Master's Degree in the concerned discipline and are of two years duration. Facilities also exist at these centres offering part-time courses at the Post- graduate level for those who are already in service. Duration of such courses normally is three years.

MANAGEMENT COURSES: FACILITIES AVAILABLE

(5) Management Education-Any effort at improvement of the utilisation of available resources and maximisation of results has necessarily to take into account better concepts of management and organisational development of the system as a whole. With this in view a chain of institutions numbering about 30 mostly in the University sector offering management courses both at the First Degree and Advanced levels has been started. The courses offered at the various institutions todate cover training at the Master's Degree level for the M.B.A. degree with an annual admission capacity of about, 1000.

III INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

As has been mentioned above, the Vocational Training/Craftsmen Courses are offered at the Industrial Training Institutes. The Diploma courses are offered in the Polytechnics which are widely spread over all the States and Union Territories and are affiliated to the respective State Boards of Technical Education who lay down in general the levels and standards of the courses and guide the system of evaluation of the students appearing at the examination. Degree and Post-Graduate courses are offered in colleges affiliated to the various Universities, certain University Departments, and institutions declared as of national importance or as deemed Universities.

(2) Indian Institutes of Technology-These are our apex institu- tions for engineering education and research. Each Institute conducts a First degree course and Master's Degree course in a wide range of subject fields, and also offers facilities for Research and Doctoral work. The main emphasis at the Institutes is on the Post-Graduate studies and Research with an inter-disciplinary approach. To this end each Institute has developed good departments of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Social Sciences which inter-act with the departments of Engineering and Technology. The student enrolment at the Institutes at the Undergraduate level is limited to 1250 and admission at the Post-Graduate level is designedly kept at about the same order as in the under-graduate courses. The Institutes are in various stages of consolidation and development; the courses being offered at the various Institutes are listed in Annexure 'E'. As part of the national plan of science and technology, five Centres of Advanced Study and Research have been set up in the Indian Institutes of Technology in Energy Studies (Delhi), Material Science (Kanpur), Cryogenic Engineering (Kharagpur), Ocean Engineering (Madras) and Resource Engineering (Bombay).

(3) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore the oldest and leading post-graduate and research centre in Science and Engineering has facilities in special fields which include Electronics and Communication Engineering,

Aeronautical Engineering, Heat and Power Engineering, High Voltage Engineering, Power Engineering, Bio-Chemistry, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. A major Centre in Automation and Control Systems and another in Electronics Design Technology are in the process of establishment.

(4) Regional Engineering Colleges - Fifteen Regional Engineering Colleges have been established in various States as a joint and co- operative enterprise of the Central and the State Governments concerned. Each Engineering College is functioning as an all-India institution admitting students and recructing faculty from all parts of the country. Fifty percent of the admissions of these institutions (each of which is being equipped for a total annual students intake of 250) is reserved for students from the other States than the ones in which they are located. In addition to the under-graduate courses these Colleges (which are academically affiliated to the Universities in the respective regions and administratively autonomous being managed by Board of Governors) also offer Post-graduate courses in various subject fields. A list of courses offered both at the Under- graduate and Post-graduate levels at these institutions is at Annexure 'F'. Special feature of some of these institutions are the industrially oriented PostGraduate courses in Engineering and Technology to train specialist Engineers for Design, Construction and Production work.

(5) State Colleges and University Departments - In addition to the above institutions offering courses at degree and post-graduate level, there is a wide net work of engineering colleges established and administered by the State Governments, Universities and private agencies; they are also affiliated to the respective Universities, and offer degree courses in a variety of subject fields. Some of them are more than a century old and have been pioneers in engineering education in the country. Many of these State colleges and University Departments are making significant contribution in the field of technical education.

(6) Special Institutions - In additions to the above institutions there are certain specialised institutions which offer education/training in specific fields-

(i) Indian Institutes of Management - Three Institutes of Management have been established at Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore. Ahemdabad, and Calcutta Institutes were established quite some time ago and the Bangalore Institute has just graduated its second batch of full time students for the M.B.A. programme. These Institutes, in addition to the offering of the M.B.A. courses at pre-employment stage for fresh University graduates, offer advanced fellowship programmes in various areas of their specialisation. They also conduct a number of in-service Executive Development Programmes and are concentrating on different sectors of the economy such as Rural Development, Energy, Transporatation, etc.

(ii) National Institute for Training in Industrial Engineering, Bombay - offers a two years post-graduate programme in Industrial Engineering as also a number of Executive Development Programmes and Unit based programmes in various areas of specific interest to specific employing agencies.

(iii) National Institute of' Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi - offers a special post-graduate training programme of 12-18 months duration in Advanced Foundry and Forge techniques for personnel from the industry.

(iv) Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad - which has been declared a deemed University is a specialised Centre for Undergraduate and Post- graduate studies and research in Mining, Applied Geology, Petroleum Technology and Geo-Physics.

(v) Technical Teacher's Training Institutes - at Bhopal, Calcutta, Chandigarh and Madras offer special 'training' to serving teachers of polytechnics.

(vi) Other Institutions - There are also other institutions offering courses in architecture and town planning (such as School of Planning and Architecture at New Delhi which offers degree course in Architecture and Post-graduate course in Town Planning with specialisation in Urban Design, Housing and Community Planning, Transportation and Traffic Engineering). Sugar Technology. (National Institute of Sugar Technology, Kanpur), Food

Technology Industrial Design (National Institute of Industrial Design, Ahmedabad), Marine Engineering (College of Marine Engineering, Bombay), etc.

IV QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

UPGRADING OF THE FACULTY AND IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION STANDARDS

By the end of the Third Plan in 1966, most of the above institutions had been started and it was considered necessary to Jay special emphasis thereafter on consolidation and development of the facilities rather than on setting up of additional institutions. Accordingly a special scheme of Quality Improvement was launched for raising the standards of instruction/training at these institutions. The measures under the Quality Improvement programme included the development of faculty, revision and improvement of curriculum including laboratory practiecs, and schemes for industrial training and refresher courses for the teachers. Facilities are provided at 14 Centres including the I.I.Ts, Roorkee University, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for enrolling serving teachers sponsored by the various institutions/agencies for Master's Degree and Doctorate Degree programmes. In this effort of updating and upgrading the level and standard of the faculty, provision was also made for appropriate industrial training for periods of 1-3 months. Short-term and Winter Schools offering special orientation courses, refresher courses etc., were also organised both at these advanced centres and others wherever facilities could be identified and organised. So far about 26,000 teachers have taken part in these programmes. (Annexure 'H' gives the number of teachers participating in the Various programmes). Curriculum Development Centres were also set up in respect of the various branches of Engineering and Technology to update the curriculum at the under-graduate level in consultation with the users of the institutional products. These Curriculum Development Centres have also engaged them selves in developing concepts for laboratory lay-out, workshop practice etc.

(2) On a similar analogy of the teachers for degree level institutions, considerable efforts have also gone in for the training of teachers for the technician courses. Because of the large number involved and the specialised training required it was considered to have a specific institutional frame work for this type of programme and accordingly four regional institutions were started for this purpose. These Technical Teacher's Training Institutes at Bhopal, Calcutta, Chandigarh and Madras have been offering a regular two-years course for serving teachers from the polytechnics in the respective regions. This two year programme consists of updating of subjects of the concerned teachers, industrial training and pedagogic training. In addition to these specific programmes, these institutes have also done work in areas of curriculum development, Short-term courses, refresher courses, production of teaching materials and textbooks etc.

APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME

(3) Apprenticeship Training Programme - With the sparsely distributed and relatively under-developed industrial base in the country and with a large number of technical institutions having been situated not within the easy access of industrial establishments, it was not possible in the earlier years of planning to arrange for in- industry training of all technical students. Nonetheless it was recognised and it is imperative that the institutional training should be supplemented with appropriate field/industrial training for adequate practical exposure to practical experience. With this end in view a practical training stipends scheme was operated in a limited way in cooperation with the then existing industrial establishments. Later on, however, a massive apprenticeship training programme was introduced in 1962 for the vocational Training level and in 1974 for the Diploma and Degree levels under the Apprentices Act, 1961 as amended. While for the craftsmen course, training is provided within the course framework, the training at the degree and diploma level is provided after the institutional courses for the duration of a year. This is expected to be both an extension of the educational process as also a preparation of the candidates for later employment.

POSITION PAPER FOR THE WORKING GROUP