 APPENDIX NO I
SPEECH OF PROF. V.K.R.V. RAO AT THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE

On behalf of the All India Council for Technical Education and on my own behalf, I have great pleasure in welcoming you to this the first meeting of the Special Committee for Polytechnic Education. I am thankful to you all for agreeing to serve on the Committee. You are representative of all the interests concerned with polytechnic education-institutions which produce diploma-holders, academic experts who are responsible for the standard and content of the diploma courses and for teaching and also industry which is the main user of technicians.

In particular, I am grateful to Professor Damodaran for agreeing to head the Committee. He is a pioneer in the field of technical education, and has worked throughout his professional life to bring technical education into intimate relationship with industry. His own institution at Coimbatore, as you all know, is a fine example of close cooperation and coordination between technical education and industry. I have no doubt that, under his able advice and guidance, the Committee will produce a valuable report. I am also thankful to Dr. Pran Lal Patel and Shri G. S. Somani who represent the All India Manufacturers' Organisation for agreeing to serve on the Committee. The All India Manufacturers, Organisation has taken keen interest in the development of technical education, particularly at the technician level, and organised a first-rate seminar in Poona, a couple of months back to bring to bear upon the problems of technical education the ex- perience and the viewpoints of industry.

There has been a lot of criticism about our Polytechnics as not being sufficiently practical in their training programmes, and we have discussed this subject on earlier occasions. When I was in the Planning Commission some years back, I made a strong plea for a thorough examination of our polytechnic system and to bring it into a purposeful relationship with industry for training the correct type of technicians. Later, at the last meeting of the All India Council for Technical Education in September, 1969, I spoke at great length on this subject and suggested that the present stage of consolidating technical education was opportune for reorganising our polytechnic courses. The All India Council welcomed the suggestion enthusiasti- cally and authorised me to constitute an expert committee immediately.

Importance of Technicians

We all know how important the middle-level manpower is for the wide range of professional duties that it is called upon to perform. The technician is concerned with the application of known knowledge to field operations in production and construction, testing and development; installing and running engineering plant; drafting and designing products; estimating cost; selling and advising customers on the use of engineering equipment. The technician also acts as a liaison between the engineers and skilled craftsman to interpret the engineer's plans and designs, to determine the type of production and construction techniques to be adopted, and to choose the tools and machines best suited to specific jobs. We must, therefore, evolve a coherent system of technical education designed to train technicians and other types of middle level personnel needed by our industry. In planning for this, however, we must remember that the training of a technician is a long process that takes place partly in a technical institute and partly in industry.

Purpose of Curriculum

The purpose of the technical institute curriculum is not only to impart a sound broad-based theoretical knowledge of a chosen engineering field but also to mould and develop the attitudes and aptitudes of the student towards optimum proficiency and productive capacity for immediate employment. The education given in a polytechnic, therefore, must be cross-fertilised with practical training experience in industry so as to expose the technician trainee to actual working conditions and methods, techniques and skills relevant to his field of speciality in drafting, design and development of products and engineering plants, in installing and ope- rating equipment, in construction, in estimating cost, and so on.

In addition, the trainee must be made to observe and understand how the engineering principles and their applications are translated into practical operations and processes in the design office, on the shop floor and in the field. In this process, he should acquire sufficient occupational competence to be able to perform the same professional functions independently when employed on the job. To coordinate theory with practice, to relate teaching to industrial work and to elaborate the complementary functions of technical institutes and industry-all this is the heart of the technician training.

Our concern should be to develop a system of polytechnic education that articulates the joint and cooperative effort of technical institutes and industry. A purposeful system of industrial apprenticeship that industry, on the one hand, accepts as its primary responsibility and that technical institutes, on the other, regard as an integral part of the total process of education, is our primary need today.

Need for Training

The importance of technicians particularly in a developing country like ours cannot be over-emphasised. In the short run. critical shortages in respect of engineers and scientists-can be met by adopting or adapting technological know-how from developed countries and importing capital equipment needed by industry. A shortage of technicians, however, cannot be made good by these methods because the imported technology and capital equipment can be used by the people of the developing countries only when they are adequately trained for the purpose. It is, therefore, imperative for us to train and develop our indigenous personnel as competent technicians. in the last analysis,the pace and directions of the economic progress of our country will largely depend upon how far we are able to solve our technician problem.

Each country has evolved its own technician courses according to the needs of its industry and according to the stage of technological development. There is, therefore, an almost bewildering variety of technician courses in the world that is only paralleled by the wide range of job operations that technicians are called upon to perform. The structure of the courses, their contents and standard and the organisational arrangement for conducting the courses differ widely from one country to another. For instance, there are near- professional courses for those technicians whose work demands a sound theoretical knowledge of engineering. At the other end of the spectrum, there are near-craft courses, for those technicians who need to have mastery of practical skills. In between there are courses that have varying proportion of theory and craft content.

Systems of Training

A variety of organisational arrangements characterises the complexity of technician courses. These consist of full-time integrated courses that are two or three years' long; sandwich courses in which a student spends stated periods in industry and in a technical institution in. alternate layers; block release courses, day release courses, evening courses and also correspondence courses. Each type of courses con- ducted in a particular country represents the historical development of technical education in response to industrial needs.

For instance, in the United States, the wide-spread Technical Institutes courses grew out of the impact of rapid changes of technological, economic and social development in the beginning of World War II in 1939. As the frontiers of engineering knowledge expanded, the need was felt for more and more people who understood how to work in the electrical, aeronautical, mechanical and chemical industries. To meet the demand, two-year full-time courses were organised, extensively for training engineering technicians. Today, these courses have spread so widely that at least one in 30 employed in industry in the United States, is a Technical Institute graduate.

In Britain, the interest of industry in the training of technicians is reflected in a well-organised system of sandwich courses that represent the joint responsibility of industry and technical institutions. Similarly, part-time courses of various types that are offered by a large network of Institutions are typical of the British scene which relies, heavily on industry for the training of craftsmen and technicians. Industy provides practical training for four days a week -and technical institutions provide the educational content during one day a week. -me system works admirably in highly industrialised and highly populated countries where distances are small.

Correspondence courses which are very popular in Australia, New Zealand and USSR are useful wherever students are widely dispersed and part-time and day-release courses are not practicable.

The German system of training "practical engineers" who are greatly valued group of middle-level personnel is unique for that country. Every candidate who joins an engineering school or Technicum to become a practical engineer must have completed at least a two-year apprenticeship in industry and German industry is providing excellent facilities for such apprenticeship training. It is, therefore, not possible to generalise the structure and form of technician courses throughout the world.

Each technician course has its own integrity. As Dr. French puts it admirably: "It is vital that a country about to organise (re- organise) its system of technician education and training should adopt that system (or systems) which is best suited to its particular circumstances, and not simply copy another country's system however well tried and successful that may be. Only if the two countries "match up" will success result from a straight duplication, and examples exist where overseas experts who have endeavoured to set up in developing countries a simple image of their system have thereby done little good and perhaps a positive disservice to the countries concerned.

Progress Since Independence

Since 1947, when India became independent, there has been a phenomenal expansion of technical education at the polytechnic level in our country. In 1947, there were only 53 institutes conducting diploma courses and they admitted 3,670 students each year. The number of diploma-holders trained were less than 4,500 a year. Today, we have about 280 institutions which are capable of admitting about 50,000 students each year. The number of diploma holders trained each year has jumped to about 23,500.

The total financial outlay on these institutions so far exceeds 100 crore rupees, for their campuses. buildings (including hostels), equipment and other capital items. Their annual budget for maintenance expenditure is over 10 crores of rupees.

Today, nearly 200,000 diploma-holders who have graduated from these polytechnics. are working in various departments of our economic life. The present student-enrolment is about 100,000 and the faculty consists of over 10,000 teachers.

This is the magnitude of our technical education enterprise at the middle-level. Many important questions, however have been raised about the standard and content of the polytechnic courses, their relationship to industrial needs and the new directions in which the whole system] of polytechnic education should be reoriented. It is one some of these aspects that I wish to share my thoughts with you today.

Polytechnic Curriculum

A review of our diploma courses shows that the so-called engineering theory accounts only for about 35-37 per cent of the total curricular time, the rest 63-65 per cent of the instructional time available being devoted to laboratory work, workshop/field work and drawing. Thus, the structure of our polytechnic curriculum provides for at least 65 per cent of the instructional time for practical work in the laboratory, in the workshop or in the field. This compares favourably with similar technical courses conducted by institutions in developed countries. Therefore, the correct position is that our diploma courses' do not seem to suffer from an overdose of engineering theory with the inevitable sacrifice of practical work. There is, at the same time, the severe criticism that our diploma-holders are not sufficiently equipped on the practical side. The main deficiency, to my mind, is that instruction given in our polytechnics is not backed with the practical experience in industry that is vital for producing a finished technician fit to enter upon his professional responsibilities in an industrial organisation. This deficiency arises out of the fact that we have not yet organised a firstrate system of apprenticeship in industry in elaboration of polytechnic education.

As I explained earlier, in Germany, for instance, every candidate- who- wishes to enter a Technicum must have completed a two- year apprenticeship in industry. In Britain, a major part of the technical college programme for the middle level technician is organised on a sandwich basis, in cooperation with industry in which a student spends half the time in industry and the other halt in the institution in alternate layers. In India, our industrial organisations and other employing authorities have yet to organizers on an adequate scale programmes of apprenticeship for young persons, after they have completed polytechnic courses that will condition them as technicians and back up the, educational programmes of polytechnics. On the other hand, they demand of the polytechnics that these shall produce technicians fully equipped with practical experience and ready to undertake professional responsibilities. No polytechnic can meet this demand without the active cooperation of industry in organising and conducting an apprenticeship programme as an integral part of the total process of technician training.

New Approach

I would, therefore, suggest for the consideration of your Committee that the reorganisation of our polytechnic -courses must proceed in this new direction.

First, polytechnics and industry that are located near each other should cooperate in organising and conducting sandwich courses for training the correct type of tehnicians that industry requires. Some efforts in this direction have been made in certain institutions in Calcutta, Madras, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Bhopal and elsewhere and the sandwich courses conducted by them have proved very useful.I feel that sandwich courses should become ultimately a general principle for all polytechnics which are located close to industry. Industry must accept as its legitimate responsibility the organisation and supervision of training for polytechnic students. Technical institu- tions must recognise that unless practical training becomes an integral part of the total educational process we cannot hope to produce the correct type of technicians required by industry.

The Central Government has proposed that the Apprenticeship Act of 1961 should be amended to include engineering graduates and diploma-holders. I hope that, when the amendment is passed, it will be possible for sandwich courses to be organised on an extensive basis. I hope your Committee will give detailed consideration to this urgent need and suggest a well integrated and well coordinated scheme of sandwich courses for polytechnics.

Methodology of Teaching

The second criticism of our polytechnic courses is that they are still a poor imitation of our engineering courses. In view of the constant reiteration of this criticism, your Committee should examine thoroughly the curriculum of diploma courses. Apiece with the curr- iculum is the question of methodology of teaching, how the different subjects are taught, the level at which they are taught and the methods by which engineering theory is related to professional practical work. You must examine the whole process of polytechnic education, the teaching and learning processes the instructional materials used, teacher competence, selection procedures of students for admission and so on.

Specialisation Technicians

The third criticism of our diploma courses is that they are in the broad fields of civil engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, and that there is no attempt at diversification or specialisation in any one particular branch of a major subject field to train specialist-technicians. This is true, but we must examine the pattern of employment of technicians in the major sectors of our national economy. With the expansion and deepening of our economy, employers in both public and private sectors are now seeking a stronger accent on specialisation.

The stage has perhaps come when our polytechnics in close co- operation with industry should carry out an analysis of the functions, fields of activity and typical job positions available; should identify various technician specialities and should re-organise their curricular offerings to suit those specialities. In doing so,' they should bear in mind the pattern of employment in major sectors of our engineering activity, the need for the mobility of the technicians both horizontal and vertical, and the immediate and future employment opportunities available to them,

Before any of these specialities is started as a part of the engineering curriculum, each polytechnic should ensure in consultation with the employing authorities concerned, that there is an adequate demand for specialist-technicians trained by them. Training in each speciality should be a judicious combination of theory and practical experience in the field and, where possible, as I said earlier, the sandwich type of courses should be offered.

The curriculum should give a broad-based education in the major fields of engineering; and training in a particular speciality should be built on the broad-base, We shouid ensure, that, if the diploma- holder does not get a suitable job in his speciality, he will not become unemployable as a technician in another relevant field, and that his horizontal mobility does not become difficult. Even where sandwich courses are followed, flexibility should be allowed to each institution to decide, in consultation with the cooperating industry at what stage of the course the professional practical training should be integrated with the whole educational process. Flexibility should also be allowed to each institute to decide whether the professional practical training should be organised at one stretch or given in convenient instalments at appropriate stages. The integrity of the sandwich course is best maintained by establishing a close re- lationship between engineering theory and its application to actual construction, production, design and maintenance of plant and equipment

APPENDIX NO I SPEECH OF PROF. V.K.R.V. RAO AT THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE