Government would rather introduce studies of Vedas and Puranas in technical institutes than fix faculty, infra problems
On January 24, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) released a new curriculum for its colleges.
On January 24, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) released a new curriculum for its colleges, which include all technical education providers in the country except the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
The new syllabus, to be introduced in the coming academic year, has many striking features - it stresses more on practical knowledge and lab work than theoretical learning, in fact, credits required to clear the course have been reduced to 160 from 220 for theory. Students will also have to meet compulsory industry internship requirements.
The students will also be taught about the Constitution and the environment, though the marks scored in these subjects will not affect their overall grades.
The changes so far seem welcome. However, there is a twist - the students will also be taught Vedas, Puranas and Tarka Shastra (logic). According to the Hindustan Times, “the course on 'Essence of Indian Knowledge Tradition' will also focus on Indian philosophical, linguistic and artistic traditions, along with yoga and Indian perspective of modern scientific worldview.”
These are technical institutes, supposedly the places to inculcate a scientific temper among students. Every college affiliated to the AICTE, whether private, deemed or state government-run, will have to follow this syllabus.
If what the government means by “Indian perspective of modern scientific worldview” is what its ministers and even the prime minister have been propounding - Ganesha was the first recorded case of plastic surgery, Raavan’s Pushpak Vimaan was the first known aircraft, and most recently, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was wrong and should be removed from school syllabi - there is a problem at hand.
Ancient India does have many things to be justifiably proud of, and there is nothing wrong in making young people aware of their heritage.
However, the issue needs to be examined in the light of two important points - technical institutes in the country are crying out for proper infrastructure and adequate faculty. Instead of focusing on those issues, was it necessary to introduce these subjects, for which time will have to be accommodated within a technical education curriculum and more teachers found?
Also, how much will the subjects help students in their chosen field of study, and why should the teaching of Vedas and Puranas be imposed on students of non-Hindu faiths, atheists and agnostics?
State of technical education
India has more than 3,000 engineering colleges alone, which produce about 700,000 engineers every year. Barely half of these find employment. In 2015-16, of the 758,000 graduates, only 334,000 got jobs through campus placements, AICTE data says.
Another 2016 report says that 97 per cent of graduating engineers want jobs either in software engineering or core engineering, but only 3 per cent have suitable skills to be employed in a software or product market, and 7 per cent can manage core engineering tasks.
Many experts have attributed the poor performance to inappropriate syllabi, inadequate infrastructure such as laboratories, and lack of quality faculty members.
Insufficient number of teachers is an acute problem - according to a 2015 report, among the IITs, Bombay had a faculty vacancy of 38.66 per cent; Kharagpur of 42.42 per cent; Roorkee of 41.88 per cent; Delhi of 33.11 per cent; Guwahati of 26.50 per cent; and IIT-BHU of 53.39 per cent.
If this is the state of IITs - elite institutes offering the best salaries - the situation lower down the order, especially in colleges in rural areas, can only be worse.
Another reason cited for the low employability of Indian engineers is their lack of soft skills and poor command over English.
If the government’s plans are to be implemented, it will mean hiring faculty members to teach the new subjects. How is hiring these teachers justified when the posts of technical faculty have been lying vacant for years?
Need for the new courses
Before the new syllabus was announced, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe was quoted by The Indian Express as saying: “Today, we see a lot of unrest and clashes among students, which show that respect for each other’s views is missing. We hope to develop an initial camaraderie and respect between students, so that they allow each other to have different views and co-exist in peace.”
Laudable views, but the problem is that the central government, under which the Ministry of Human Resource Development functions, does not have a great record of co-existing in peace. Its preferred way to settle differences in opinion is to impose one view, through questionable means, of necessary.
Introducing Vedas and Puranas in institutes of technical learning smacks of a similar agenda - of projecting what is Hindu as what is Indian, of trying to make one religion a shared heritage of a pluralistic, diverse country.
Every time there have been attempts to make yoga or the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in educational institutes, there have been controversies. Making Vedas and Puranas part of a uniform syllabus across the country is obvious, and avoidable, recipe for trouble.
The BJP had come to power with the promise of creating 10 million jobs. While that may not happen, urgent steps are needed to boost employment figures, and fixing the state of technical education is one of the major ways to do it.
Instead of trying to turn colleges into laboratories for its saffron project, the government should focus on addressing the genuine ills plaguing the sector.