 SECTION II
FURTHER COMMENTS : MR. E. HOUGHTON, U.K.

E. Houghton U.K.

I would like to begin by expressing my cost cordial thanks to the very many people who have made me feel so welcome in this country and have taken such pains to educate me and facilitate my task. Every- where I have been most cordially received and time and trouble have not been spared in making me welcome and showing me far more than I could possibly digest.

In making my contribution, I may be more often critical than offering praise. I do this as I normally do in similar assignments as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors when I am operating in England and Wales, because it should be well understood that I seek only to better the whole system I am studying and to offer advice to those charged with the responsibility for the public service which will enable them to identify the problems and arrive at a good solution. I trust that the Indian Government Committee which I have served in the last few months will read my report in this light. It will be for them to say whether any of my observations are generally true or false and to make recommendations to Government accordingly.

In July 1970, G. Ross Henninger and I made a joint statement to a meeting of the Special Committee held in Bombay. After that meeting Mr. Henninger left India and I have since made a further study in some greater depth at selected centres at the request of the Chairman of the Special Committee, Professor Damodaran and Shri Biman Sen and Shri Narasimham of the Ministry of Education and Youth Services. After this further study and after longer time for careful consideration, I do not feel a need to make any amendment to the joint statement on the existing situation or the Recommendations Nos. 113 which we then made. This further statement will be in the nature of an amplification, will introduce a few fresh observations and will include as annexures some specific observations on particular topics in response to the request of the Chairman.

I propose to make this further statement under the following headings:

I. Important Steps in Reorganisation

1. Scaling of Provision 2. Staff Development and the TTTIs

II. Some Further Random Observations

III. Underlying Causes of Defects in the System-Incentives and Disincentives

Annexure A Industrial Training Boards in UK

Annexure B Electronics and Telecommunications

1. Important Steps in Reorganisation

I make this my first heading in an attempt to isolate, from a welter of observations and recommendations, the steps which will need to be given first attention in order to make reorganisation a reality.

1. Scaling of Provision to assess the size of the task and feasibility seems to me an obvious first step and it is for this reason that I am perhaps risking repetition.

I think it is essential for the educational service to work with and involve industry in specifying the number and quality of technicians required. Appropriate professional bodies should also be concerned in specifying quality. In specifying numbers, some regard should be paid to the excess required over and above those forecast as required by present industry, i.e. those required for national development and expansion, for enterpreneurship etc.

I also think it is important for the educational service to look realistically at the number of institutions required. In a situation where there is an acute shortage of quality staff, it is totannly unrealistic to maintain full staffs in small institutions remote from the industries and bodies of enlightened thought in the advanced disciplines of engineering. It is not necessarily sugggested that individual courses should enrol large numbers since there is great advantage to be derived from close contact between a small group of students and a well qualified tutor. Pilot courses are also better if groups are small, so that they are within the capacity of available placements of laboratory and industrial experience. None the less, these advantages disappear unless the staff is of high quality and the placements are suitable and well organised. Much greater benefits derive from having a concentration of expertise and facilities on one campus. The more important advantages are that expert staff and facilities are available to a wider range of courses, the liaison with industrial management is simplified and not aborted by overloading the management of industries with educational contacts, students gain enormously from the interchange of ideas with students of other disciplines or with students having industrial experience who come back to college for updating or postgraduate study. Most important of all, the expensive and rare staff such as good principals, heads and senior lecturers, the library, laboratories and workshops with large expensive equipment, can be more fully loaded.

*Submitted in September,1970

If colleges are to be maintained in small towns away from major industries, then they should offer courses appropriate to the needs of the local community. Otherwise they take people away from the countryside and send them to the major centres, where they will become dissatisfied and dissident, since they have been ill-prepared for industrial engineering employment. The rural communities need to be encouraged to prepared progressive young people to develop farming and rural industries on progressive lines. Young people who are going to leave the village for industrial or commercial life in the cities would be much better served by pursuing their education and training in major centres where they can receive high quality education and training and become accustomed to the faster pace of the modern industrial or commercial centre.

2. Staff Development is I believe the hinge-pin of successful reorganisation.

I think it is a necessary assumption that the present force of teachers and heads will be called upon to implement all the changes in college organisation and philosophy, curriculum development and teaching method. The task of retraining and developing this force is an immense one and priorities will need to be settled so that the task can be completed to a reasonable time scale. It is not a once and for all task, since continuing development and improvement will be necessary as or demands on the system change and in the interest of continuing improvement in efficiency.

Because of the size of the task and because training is rarely effective without follow-tip and support on the job, I believe that it is a task to be shared between many agencies. There is need however to have focal points or central units which will act as spearheads for training and which will conserve and unify effort so that there is maximum and speedy effect.

I believe tht the Technical Teacher Training Institutes could have a most important and vital role to play and could become the focal points or spearheads of all training activities.

To intiate programmes of staff development and training. a start should be made with principals since they will need to carry through the reorganisation and to be the agency which ensures that teaching staff follow Programmes of training and make use of their new skills. For this reason it is urged that the principals of contributory colleges should have a major share in the academic governance of college,; of teacher training or at least should form advisory com- mittees for these colleges.

Since the TTTIs will have such a, major role to play the direction and governance of these institutions and the staffing and provisioning should be given the highest priority so that personnel of the highest calibre available are engaged in planning and executing their activities. There is need to co-ordinate the activities of the TTTIs with the activities of external and other agencies engaged in staff development so that a common purpose is pursued towards maximum and speedy effect.

Recommendations 6-9 in the report I submitted jointly with Mr. Henninger proposed the designation within each major region of the country of certain ploytechnics to act as centres of excellence, for which purpose they should be given a higher standard of staff and equipment and a greater measure of freedom in respect of curriculum and examinations. I now wish to suggest that the major role of TTTIs lies first in assisting these designated ploytechnices to perfrom this role and secondly in acting as a medium whereby this standard of excellence should set a pattern for the others.

They would perfrom this work in a variety of ways: by maintaining a cadre of high level specialists who would be available for advice and consultation; by organising both long and short in-service courses for serving staff in the methodology of technical teaching, the use of educational aids, and in the introduction of new aspects of teaching. They would provide the central point of reference for curriculum development and for the preparation and production of teaching materials including books, teaching aids and equipment.

It is observed that in the recent past the TTTIs have offered a long course in three parts. That it has been a long course is considered a major disincentive to the active participation of the teachers who are most in need of training, involving as it does separation from the family and extra cost at a time when there is the heaviest demand on the family budget. Moreover, it is seriously doubted whether the TTTIs are the best agency to execute two of the parts of the present programme-namely, (a) the updating and advancement of subject knowledge and (b) the arrangement of industrial experience. The TTTIs may well be the appropriate institutions for researching into and developing methods of implementing these Parts (a) and (b) and could well run courses for principals and others who are going to implement these parts locally. It is considered,however, that teachers undergoing these necessary programmes of gaining indu- strial experience and improving their subject knowledge should not be attached to TTTIs is for the following reasons:

(i) In fast moving technologies such as control systems and electronics and in each and every specialist technology the TTTIs cannot be expected to, have specialist professors or the necessary equipment and facilities. The Institutes of Technology, some engineering colleges and the research and other institutes such as CMTI should make the major contribution and in some cases the teacher can work for the award of a higher degree.

(ii) Reference will be made later to the need to reduce the number of people taking up the valuable time of industrial executives and others in arranging and supervising train-

80 ing programmes. The matters of arranging successful industrial co-operation is very dependent on establishing goodwill and personal relationships with executives and managements. Too many people approaching managements can destory goodwill and successful co-operation.

(iii) Much travelling time and cost is wasted to the detriment of production time in staff of TTTIs arranging and spervising the training of teachers at a distance throughout a region. It is suggested that the polytechnics and colleges will need to have industrial liaison officers to arrange and supervise industries training and that the polytechnics, either singly or in groups, should have senior staff allocated to work with the TTTIs to act as tutors at the polytechnics and to follow up and supplement the training given at TTTIs.

By freeing the TTTIs from these commitments, which have restricted their influence to a relatively small number of teachers spread widely over the country, we would allow them to concentrate their influence in such a way as to have a critical effect on a selected number of key institutions, and establish a pattern of excellence which could eventually affect the country as a whole.

The TTTIs should concentrate on pedagogical training and the development of sociological and administrative studies for polytechnic and engineering college staff. It is essential that the pedagogical element should remain technology oriented and all the activities of TTTIs should be oriented to the specific needs of teachers in technological and sociological adult and post school education.

Wherever teachers are encouraged to use teaching aids and materials it should be ensured that these aids and materials are readily available in India. If' they are not available but none the less necessary, then it is suggested that the TTTIs should take the necessary initiatives towards arranging for development and manufacture so that this is done at one most economic and speedy centre.

II. Some Further Random Observations

There is much concern about student unrest, not only in India but all over the world. Unrest among any community may be fomented but fomentation cannot be successful in a clear ambience. It is unlikely that human affairs can be so perfectly administered that complete clarity is even achieved and while clarification should be the main aim, some equally effective counter-fomentation will be necessary. Today's unrest among the young is evidence of earlier maturity.

Awareness of social maturity and the need for good personal management is not seemingly well developed in the educational system. A curriculum of up to 40 hours a week of instruction in almost purely technical subjects does not produce an educated man, It can have the opposite, effect of producing an automation who is so dulled by drilling in technical data that he is unaware of the real management issues. Large successful firms in the UK who spent considerable effort in developing technical training schemes for craftsmen discovered that these trainees were still ineffective even in the narrow sense of maintaining a high productivity. These firms have now recognised that the greater need is for the sociological education of their employees.

To apply the above to the reorganisation of polytechnic education means that curricula need to be revised to devote less time to class and laboratory teaching in technical subjects; this implies the need for greater effectiveness of teaching in the reduced ,hours and to allow more time for student corporate life and other me-tins of developing young people as whole well-balanced persons able to face not only the technical but also the social challenge of industrial responsibility. It also means a development of academic staff more aware of their social responsibilities and devotion to the development of whole student interests and very keenly alive to student thought so that at least they can sense and act quickly to eradicate root causes of unrest or indiscipline. In the ultimate however one would strive to attain a condition in which unrest or indiscipline did not arise. It is of course essential to this development of staff that their own selection and administration should be of high order and that they should be supported in their efforts by their governments.

Linked with the above, I would want to make an observation on what I consider to be a common misconception. It is repeatedly said that the diplomate of the polytechnic is intended and recruited by industry to become a supervisor. The supervisor's job in industry seems to be conceived as one of giving orders or intructions for work to be done. It seems to be overlooked that the giving of orders is an interaction between persons or that the real job of the supervisor is to motivate a group of people to work towards a common end. A man can be a good engineer, a good technician or a good craftsman or workman without having any of the qualities which make him a group leader. The selection of leaders with these qualities, education to develop these qualities and training to perform leadership well or in the use of management tools is quite separate from the selection, education and training of engineers, technicians or craftsmen. This needs to be recognised and the whole structuring and implementation of management selection education and training conceived as a separate faculty. Generally, management and supervisory education is a postgraduate of a postappreeiceship, since maturity in the job situation is a necessary entrance requirement. None the less, since engineers, technicians and craftsmen are members of a working team and of society and some are potential supervisors, there is need for 'liberal education and some study of administration to be a part of all curricula and in some courses it may be the major part.

It is appropriate here to refer to the commonly held view that part-time courses should be in the students' own time, It is most strongly urged that in-

dustry should be persuaded to give release for education and to recognise that tired people cannot benefit from teaching, that free time is learning time, that it is learning that matters not teaching and that further education will often replace and be more effective than works training. Industry would never consider asking employees to return to the works outside working time in order to receive further training. Moreover, the opportunity to attend evening classes at college is only really open to those living within easy access of the college. Colleges are often some miles away from home and workplace.

III. Underlying Causes of Defects in the System Incentives and Disincentives

I have left this Section to the end because .I realise that it may be the most difficult and intractable of solution. Also it enters fields in which I am not necessarily expert and the could well be larger issues involved which over-ride the very narrow view which I have taken.

However, my further thinking led me to the conclusion that it was necessary to seek out the fundamental underlying causes of defects in the system. These defects in the system of technical education seem to be already well known by all concerned with the system and after Mr. Henninger and I had prepared our joint statement we observed that we had come to the same conclusions as other various committees and visiting experts in a period 1961 to the present time. I have come to the conclusion that further recommendations and plans for reorganisation will be of no avail unless the underlying causes of disappointing results attending the efforts of staff, heads of departments and principals are recognised and unless determined efforts are made to eradicate these causes. Consequently I have questioned repeatedly at all levels i.e. State Directors of Education, Principals, Heads of Departments, Lecturers. I find that while answers vary from state to state as might be expected, it has been presented to me from innumerable reliable sources that there are well defined disincentives in the administration and conditions of employment which are truly at the root of most it not all of the defects in the system. I will therefore deal with this question of incentives and disincentives since in education more perhaps than in any field of human endeavour-success ultimately depends on the morale and conviction of individual teachers and those in positions of academic responsibility. It is likely that I have not uncovered all the factors and I would suggest that a further thorough-going investigation by a team of impartial consultants drawn from all the States, of Indian nationality and unimpeachable professional integrity would be of inestimable value in making a dynamic forward step towards increased effectiveness of the system.

Firstly, I would define the system as not only the polytechnic system of technical education but also the Universities and Engineering Colleges and the Industrial Training Institutes. While I have concentrated on the Polytechnics since this was the brief of the Special -Committee, I believe it would be a mistake to reorganise and improve the Polytechnics and to leave the engineer and craftsman producing system alone, since on the one hand the standard of the professional engineer should be at least as good as that of the technician and-likewise there is no real well-defined -margin between craftsman and the range of technician employment. All parts of the system can benefit each other and the output of engineers, technicians and craftsmen must work as a team.

Some colleges I have visited, and perhaps many colleges throughout India, have clearly recognisable good staff, equipment, facilities and expertise and high potential. Too often however some factor or factors is or are preventing the college authorities from offering a course and an educational qualification which is real and significant in terms of the quality of engineer required to develop the industry of India or engineers who will exercise individual initiative towards supplying the community with readily available engineering aids to greater prosperity and wellbeing. Too many other colleges are content to sink further and further behind and do no more than be content with going through the motions of enrolling students, taking classes, conducting terminal examinations with seemingly little thought for the value, or betterment of the end product. I will now examine the possible causes of this in Sections 1-5 below:

1. My first observation concerns the system of colleges affiliated to universities, but the same remarks are applicable to colleges within a state operating a State examination. Taking the affiliated college as the example, unless the staff of the college have a strong voice in the academic governance of the university and even when they have, attempts by one college to improve curricula, syllabus content or examination quality are thwarted by other colleges or interests who say that the group d colleges have riot all the necessary finance or facilities to make it possible to change. To overcome this problem I would like to give a few observations on the operation of the Council for National Academic Awards in the U.K. I am not. suggesting that herein lies a ready solution for India-rather I suggest that the mode of operation should be studied in case an Indian solution can be devised from some of the facets.

In the U.K. the academic independence of universities has been sacred and there was much discussion and controversy in the 1950 as to the form of qualification to be awarded in colleges in the Local Authority Sector after a technological course at first degree level. After a period when the NCTA was set up to award a Dip. Tech. and this qualification had won esteem and recognition the NCTA was replaced by CNAA which would award first and higher degrees not only in technology but also in Arts and Sociological disciplines (B.Sc., B.A. and Masters and Doctorates).

The CNAA has a charter to award degrees and has formed a number of subject panels. The membership, of these panels embraces university staff, staff from colleges (which award the Council's degrees), representatives from industry and business, and from the appropriate professional and national educational bodies. There is now a clearly recognisable modus operandi. Firstly, the Council has been extremely

careful that the new penny of its degree shall be at least as valuable (some would say more valuable) than the existing degree currency value. When the necessary financial sanctions have been obtained, a college will put detailed proposals to the Council. After consideration of the written scheme and supporting evidence, a visiting panel of the CNAA will assess in depth whether the academic governance, the quality of thinking on the part of individual staff members, the accommodation, facilities and equipment of the institution, the arrangements for assessment and external moderation are such that the course and final assessment of the college can lead to the award of the CNAA degree. If the Council are satisfied then the college is approved and left to operate the course and make awards usually for a period of five years. After that time the approval will be renewed or withdrawn after a further similar investigation by the Council.

I would repeat that this may not be the solution for India and perhaps some other system such as the accreditation scheme of the American Society for Engineering Education or some other system would be more favourable. The important thing is to provide incentive for the elevation of the quality of qualification and to give the maximum autonomy to the college while retaining adequate control over main- tenance of minimum standards. It will be noted that in the CNAA system financial control is exercised by the education authorities prior to and concurrently with the academic control exercised by the CNAA.

2. Colleges are constantly under pressure to admit students according to quite arbitrary and often low-quality entry requirements; there is similar pressure to promote or give the final award to students who have not made satisfactory attendance or performance. The motivation for this pressure is doubtless to give better opportunity-the result is sometimes the opposite since it destroys people and commits them to frustration. I would illustrate this by quoting a senior executive of a large undertaking. He said, as many other industrialists have said, that they were quite content with the quality of intake of graduates and diplomates since they carried out their own training (he did not say at what cost), after being able to select an intake of only 5 per cent from the new graduates and diplomates who applied. No industry could afford to consign 95 per cent of its production to the scrap heap.

The pressures to increase input and output without regard to quality should be firmly resisted.

3. College staffs once employed at assistant lecturer level can normally expect to rise to senior level according to seniority only. Where selection is made there is sometimes suspicion that the selection is by other considerations than merit. Unless opportunities for promotion occur because the system is to expand (and it is not thought that it should expand) there is little incentive for staff to improve their teaching or develop the college facilities. It is strongly recommended that means should be devised for recognising good performance, satisfactory completion of teacher training or industrial experience, work in the development of teaching or teaching aids; work in the selection and placement of students, work in the development of college corporate life, or in student guidance. It is suggested that promotion from grade to grade should be by selection, taking account of merit on any of the above considerations. The selection procedure should be beyond suspicion and recommended by carefully-appointed committees with membership predominantly of educationists and in- dustrialists with experience of personnel management, if necessary drawn from areas other thin that in which the appointment is to be made.

4. While it is necessary to retain democratic control of public expenditure, there is need to ensure within broad limits or control, that the authority of principals, and Heads in academic matters and in necessary maintenance of staff or student discipline is not easily over-ridden because, if it is, the whole system can be undermined to the detriment of continuing effectiveness.

5. There are some unfortunate consequences arising from the separation under different Ministries of the I.T.Is which produce craftsmen and the polytechnics which produce technicians. The margin between technicians and craftsmen is not easily defined, both I.T.Is and polytechnics are concerned with efficiency of instruction, both need close relationship with industry and busy industrialists do not welcome duplication of discussion with outside bodies, the polytechnics and I.T.Is can both benefit from an interchange of experties and facilities and for many people in engineering there is need for natural progression from craft to technician employment. The unfortunate consequences of I.T.I. and polytechnic separation should be recognised and continual active steps should be taken to reduce the frictional interface.

ANNEXURE A

Dissertation on the operation of industrial Training Boards in, the U.K. and their relationship with Technical colleges-seen from the point of view of relevance to India. Prepared at the request of Professor Damodaran.

One should first look at conditions in the United Kingdom prior to the passing of the Industrial Training Act in the mid-1960. From the 1920's and earlier, the largest firms, particularly those employing engineers, had established training schemes, had training officers at a senior level and operated training schools as well as arranging on the job training. During World War II there was considerable development of training facilities, in the services, in civilian industry and under the Ministry of Labour. The nationalised industries such as National Coal Board, Electricity Boards, had well established training schemes. Trainees were recruited from Universities and Colleges of Technology, from Schools and also adults.

The professional bodies such as I. Mech. E., I.E.E. laid down firm standards for admission to membership i.e. a specific period and type of:

(a) practical workshop experience.

(b) responsible experience and also.

Technical Colleges offered 'courses which in the 1950's were almost entirely day release and post 1960 increasingly block release or sandwich. Major colleges divised sandwich courses in conjunction with industry; sometimes the initiative came from an industry in need of particular kinds of engineers. The typical technical college in the U.K. will offer courses in engineering, business studies, construction, sciences and perhaps mining, printing, or textiles ac- cording to the locality. Courses will range in level from degree or professional through technician to craft or operative. In construction particularly but also to an extent in engineering, the craft course at the technical college would deal with the how, why and method of the craft and leave the apprentice to develop skill and speed at work either by organised training or by working with skilled men. Many colleges developed full-time courses at first and second year craft level in which both the educational and training components were given, the latter in the college workshops. At technician level City and Guilds courses were well established in mechanical and elect- rical engineering and the national certificates were becoming recognised more as a higher technician qualification than as a route to professional status. The Institutions of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering had Published recommended forms of practical training for the professional engineer. This was the situation when the I.T. Act became law, The intention of the Act was to make training provision more universal among the smaller industries as well as the bigger and in all industries and commercial situations including retail trades, in various textile industries etc. The Act empowered Training Boards to be set up, to finance themselves by charging a levy on industry, to prescribe schemes of training and to pay grant to employers in respect of training which satisfied the Board's requirement. Schemes of training would not be approved unless at least the equivalent of one day a week release was given for associated further education. Boards were set up to administer training, in groups of industries according to the Ministry of Labour Classification. This meant that for example engineers would be employed in industries which did not come under the Engineering Industries Training Board and likewise builders and commerical staff would be employed by firms coming under the En- gineering Industries Training board. It was agreed between boards that they would adopt the training schemes of one of them, e.g. all boards would expect mechanical fitters and turners to be trained according, to the recommendations of the Engineering Industries Training Board. Boards were formed over the year-the EITB was one of the first and Retail Industries, one of the more recent and there are sonic industries for which boards have not yet been formed. The E.I.T.B. and the Motor Industries Training Board are among those which have developed fastest. Each board sets its own levy and grant rate. Some boards have got on further than setting schemes of further education. Taking the EITB, however, it concerned itself at first with setting first year schemes of craft training. A general first year scheme was adopted for all crafts with the intention that in the second and subsequent years training would be given in specialist modules e.g. turners, electrical fitters, welders. The first year scheme was recommended to 'he in off-the-job training workshops either attached to firms or set up by the board itself or in many cases in technical college workshops. In the latter case the colleges were more easily able to give an integrated course of education and, training.

It should be said that the expected rapid expansion of demand for college places did not take place because it seemed that major industries had already established training schemes and the firms which were not providing training regarded the levy of the board as just another tax like selective employment tax which was introduced at about that time, which they were able, to recover by passing on to their customers. None the less, considerable gains have accrued already from implementation of the Act. The Science and Art of Training is being considerably developed, there is a growing force of training officers and instructors employed by industry and the boards and these are required to follow courses in Technical colleges.

There has developed a rapid and fruitful interchange of ideas within the U.K. and with practice abroad and the skills of job analysis, devising curricula and training are developing rapidly, such that training time is bing drastically reduced and the resulting greater efficiency will show overall economic as well as social benefit.

The E.I.T.B. has only recently published its first re- commendations on "The Training of Technician Engineers" and work is continuing in the Technician field. A Report on an inquiry into the employment and training of technicians the engineering industry 1969 is now being considered by the board and may be published shortly. This inquiry was a nationwide survey and the findings occupy some 60 pages. The Report analyses in some detail where technicians work, their age and qualifications and the work they do. It should be noted that 'Supervisory activities accounted for only 6 per cent of the total time worked'.

To answer the question 'what is the relationship between I.T.B.'s and technical colleges', it is worth noting that the, Technical Training Policy Committee of the E.I.T.B. has some 14 members of whom the Chairman is Head of Department at a College of Technology and four others are a Principal, an examining body officer, and two are H.M.I. (Technical Education).

Release to colleges for further education is compulsory for the receipt of grant. Many colleges conduct full-time training courses for the board. Training officers and instructors courses are conduct- ed in colleges. The devising of educational curricula to match the board's training requirements is a matter for the educational service and is done by committees with a membership predominantly of teachers. The integration of training and technical education to keep instruction in step means close liaison between college and works training staffs.

ANNEXURE B

Electoronics and Telecommunications

I was asked to make observations with particular reference to the fields of electronics and telecommunications and in the last few weeks I have looked more closely into the departments of colleges offering these subjects and also I have visited small and major industries in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and in Bangalore.

The present industrial firms who manufacture electronic and telecom equipment and components in India have been built up either in collaboration with firms abroad or with the Departments of Defence or Posts and Telegraphs. In one case a government research establishment formed the initial cadre of what is now a public undertaking.

The manpower needs of this type of manufacturing industry are in the phases of:

1. Research and Development.

2. Product development.

3. Production planning including development of production test equipment which in this in- dustry is often electronic.

4. Direct production and testing.

5. Servicing or maintenance.

Research and development activity is minimal because of the collaboration. It is development of the product and of production test equipment which needs engineer specialists in electronics and/or telecommunications. On an all India basis there seems to be a ready supply of graduates capable of developing this activity and industry seems able to be highly selective in recruiting these people. Possibly the major employement in these industries is in production planning and control of production. It should be borne in mind that this is a production engineer (sometimes a chemical or process engineer) activity rather than requiring specialist electronic engineers. None-the-less the production engineers need some knowledge of electronics. Bearing in mind the wider applications of electronics and for that matter other systems such as pneumatics and oileomatics, study of system engineering with understanding of basic theory is becoming a desirable component of all production engineering curricula.

One of the major firms I visited contemplates a five times or more expansion of their activities in the next two or three years but after that expect that their need of new engineers will flatten off. This industry is hoping that the educational system can assist with or take a major part in the training for this expansion. While the time scale is too short for a college or colleges to acquire staff, develop curricula and run a course (and if they did so, the demand would dis- appear after or before the first output), advantage might be taken of this wish of industry to establish training schemes in co-operation with the colleges so as to build up expertise and capability for future wider needs.

At the present scale of production, the manufacturers seem able to look after the servicing of their equipment by setting up their own agencies in the major regional centres, or they supply equipment to users such as defence, posts and telegraphs who have their own trained servicing personnel. At some later stage when more equipment is produced for the public at large, there will be need to anticipate the need for servicing tchnicians and mechanics.

I should complete this annexure by referring as I did in my joint statement with Mr. Henninger to the need for college courses to be up dated, oriented towards the transistor and other solid-state-devices, for more laboratories to be equipped on a self-made basis with circuit boards. Some departments are making good progress in this direction but there everywhere seems to be need of a low priced oscilloscope so that this valuable teaching aid can be available in quantity almost on the same scale as the universal test meter.

In the field of electronics more than any other, because of the rapid developments in technology, there is need for teachers and practising engineers to be continually updating their knowledge and it is suggested that due provision and allowance should be made for this especially in the colleges which may have only one teacher working in isolation in this field. An appropriate engineering college or Institute of Technology working in collaboration with specialists in industry could usefully run frequent courses on an all India basis.

SECTION II FURTHER COMMENTS : MR. E. HOUGHTON, U.K.

E. Houghton U.K.

Electoronics and Telecommunications