* The IITs do not seem to motivate the students and teachers sufficiently in regard to their commitment to the nation to give their best and achieve excellence.
* Efficiency and productivity have been affected by obsolescence in the Institutes set up two to three decades ago and lack of coordinated manpower and technology policies.
* IITs should take up research and development activities related to the environment in which they are located. For this purpose, they should diagnose the problems/needs of nearby rural communities and work for their solutions.
* IITs should use their facilities for spreading education.
* The joint entrance examination scheme should be redefined by evolving and introducing an aptitude test. Coaching of SC and ST candidates for joint entrance examination should be rationalised.
* Inculcation of Indian values should be brought about by emphasis being laid, in the curriculum, on the socioeconomic ethos in which technology development is taking place in India.
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* Radical changes in the management structure should be made by taking up necessary amendments to the Act and statutes for the purpose. (One of the principal objectives of the proposed changes in the management structure is decentralisation of decision making.)
Recommendation The report of the IIT Review Committee should be carefully considered and decisions taken emergently.
Future Perspective and Measures 10.7.0 Taking into account the present scenario and the perspective of development of technical education vis-a-vis the national development goals, it is felt that while consolidating and strengthening the ongoing programmes, we should concentrate on certain crucial areas standard and quality improvement at all levels; upgradation of infrastructure facilities; linkages with industry and national laboratories; technology world and man-power assessment; prevention of brain drain; research and development; cost effective needs; programmes for SCs/STs, women and the physically handicapped; entrepreneurship development; and continuing education.
Recommendations
a) Improvement of quality and standards at all levels Action:
- Introduce a broad-based flexible system through modular courses with credit system and provision for multi-point entry.
- Encourage creativity and innovation in experimental work by introducing problem/process-oriented laboratory exercises.
- Review curricula on a continuing basis.
- Improve quality of science education in schools.
- Admit students to technical education programmes based only on merit and motivation.
- Make recruitments to teaching positions strictly on merit by open competition and on all-India basis.
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- Develop engineering faculty members through the effective use of study leave, summer training, consulting and research opportunities.
- Assess teachers annually through a "staff appraisal scheme".
- Introduce coordinated training programmes for nonteaching technical supporting staff.
- Grant autonomy to selected institutions and departments on the basis of the track records.
- Aceredit all existing institutions and grade their quality through accreditation procedure.
b) Upgradina of infrastructural facilities. Action:
- Strengthen the programmes of modernisation', 'removal of obsolescence', 'thrust areas' etc.
- Enhance computer facilities through appropriate networking.
- Provide audio-visual aids and reprographic facilities.
- Improve library services with modern networking facilities through computers and satellite communications.
- Formulate a long term plan for increasing access to world literature in science & technology.
- Establish learning resource centres.
- Provide residential accommodation for faculty and students and improve facilities for sports, recreation, cultural activities etc.
C) Establishment of effective linkages with industry, national
laboratories, development sectors and other institutions bodies.Action;
- Promote industry institution interaction through apprenticeship opportunities, consultancy and sponsored research, continuing education programmes for industry personnel, 'adjunct professorship' in institutions for willing and capable personnel- from industry, 'residency' for institutional faculty in industry, involvement of industry in the development for
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curricula, courses etc.
- Set up industrial liaison boards, industry- institution cells, industrial foundations etc.
- Make national laboratories such as BARC, NAL, NCL, NPL and DMRL, train students at the post-graduate and Ph.D levels in chosen areas of advanced technology.
- Encourage mobility and exchange of faculty between academic institutions, national laboratories and industrial establishments.
- Strengthen the scheme of networking higher technological institutions with less developed ones.
- Involve professional bodies in planning and organising educational programmes.
d) Technology watch and assessment of manpower needs.Action:
- Ensure coordination between the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) under the Department of Science & Technology and the National Technical Manpower System (NTMIS) under the Department of Education to couple the technology forecasting system with the system for manpower forecasting and planning.
- Prepare a National Directory of occupations and Job Titles to identify a variety of need-based courses and fixing intake levels.
- consider reviving the Indian Engineering Personnel Service (IEPS).
e) Measures to prevent brain drain.Action:
- Make the Scientists Pool in the CSIR more attractive by offering better remuneration according to merit and placement in the right institutions.
- Utilize all international collaboration programmes to enable Indian scientists and technologists to undertake useful collaborative projects with well established institutions abroad.
- Take concrete steps to enhance the mobility of scientists and technologists paying due attention to matters such as accommodation, financial compensation, children's education etc. 246
- Check migration of engineering graduates to non-engineering professions through career guidance activities.
- Make available opportunities of employment, including on part-time basis, for well trained women scientists/engineers.
- Consider bringing in legislation to ensure that highly trained engineers and technologists put in atleast three years of service in the country before they can go abroad as in countries like France.
f) Promotion of research and development (R&D) Action:
- Set up some of the major national facilities required for carrying out research in educational institutions.
- Provide access to the major national facilities to wider cross-sections of academic community and more importantly to the student community on the campuses.
- Assign to educational institutions challenging mission-oriented projects to give better focus to their R & D efforts.
- Promote centres of excellence around small groups of scientists and engineers.
- Allocate resources for research on the basis of priorities rather than 'something-for-everybody basis.
- Identify problem-oriented research projects of national importance in consultation with industry and national agencies.
- Set up a National Board for Science and Engineering Research solely for funding fundamental research on the pattern of the National science Foundation (NSF) of the United States.
- Encourage multi-disciplinary, trans- disciplinary and trans-organizational research with emphasis on design and development.
- Ensure that the research programmes undertaken by postgraduate teaching and research institutions are properly screened and pre-evaluated.
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g) Steps to ensure cost-effectiveness.Action:
- Wind up courses and programmes which are out-dated and stereotyped. Promote introduction of courses in conventional areas only in exceptional cases.
- Encourage neighbouring academic and research institutions not only to conduct joint programmes, but also to share facilities.
- Make the interested agencies and industries bear the cost of providing trained manpower in certain highly specialised areas rather than support such training from Government funds.
- Explore avenues for multiple usage of infrastructural facilities existing in technical education institutions. They include part-time evening courses, continuing educational programmes, consulting and testing services, and so on.
- Encourage institutions to generate resources through consultancy, testing services, etc.
- Emphasise the role of non-monitoring inputs such as better planning, advanced technologies and practices, better systems of supervision and administration, monitoring and evaluation, and above all dedicated efforts by teachers, students and educational administrators.
- Devise an alternative system as distinct from government funding system to involve private and voluntary effort in technical education sector in conformity with accepted norms and goals.
h) Special programmes for SC/ST, women and the Physical1v
handicapped.Action:
- Identify as many talented and bright SC/ST students as possible at school stage and organize special coaching classes to prepare them to compete with other students 'for admission to professional courses in engineering and technology on their own merit.
- Provide adequate hostel accommodation and special incentives such as scholarships, freeships, stipends etc. to attract girl students to professional courses.
- Organize guidance seminars for girl students at the + 2 stage of school to motivate them and to give them
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insights into the various branches of engineering and technology.
- Make efforts to introduce training programmes for the physically handicapped in as many existing institutions as possible. special equipment and facilities will be required for imparting training to the physically handicapped.
- Devise appropriate formal and non-formal programmes of technical education for the benefit of women, the economically and socially weaker sections, and the physically handicapped.
i) Entrepreneurship development Action:
- Strengthen the activities and programmes of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB).
- Promote programmes such as Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs), Entrepreneurship Awareness Camps (EACs), Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEPs) and preparation of opportunity profiles.
- Integrate entrepreneurship education with the formal system of technical education by introducing suitable modules.
- Implement special entrepreneurship development programmes exclusively for S&T personnel in close collaboration with NSTEDB, CSIR Laboratories, Industrial Development Bank of India, Department of Industrial Development and such other agencies.
j) Continuing education and re-training Programmes Action:
- Formalise retraining programmes for engineering and technology personnel engaged in all sectors, and make them mandatory.
- Create programmed learning packages and employ distance learning methodology to enable self- development and training of all scientific and technical personnel.
- Adopt continuing education as a national culture and make it a recognised activity of all technical education institutions. In fact much of the manpower requirements in emerging areas should be met by retraining technical personnel already in employment.
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Investment or high technology 10.8.0 Often investments in higher technical education institutions comes to be criticised on the basis that letter levels of education have to be given priority. While technical education should be reoriented to the needs of the rural people, care should be taken to see that high technology is not de-emphasised, lest India becomes a back number in the world in terms of development. (In fact, some high level technologies do have direct impact on the daily lives of the rural people farmers, fishermen etc.). Even for investment in letter levels of education on grounds of equity and social justice, adequate funds should be provided for institutions of excellence.