The new scheme – Self governance and restructuring

Back ground..

Prof. Yashpal Committee report on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education is submitted to the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the ministry is likely to implement the advice of the committee. The implementation will amount to major overhaul and restructuring of higher education systems in India.

As a part of scheme even Architecture education is likely to change substantially.

The Change..

It is expected that the course will be reduced to four years, taking away the practical training from curriculum. The B. Arch. Degree will be conferred at successful completion of four year course. However, this will not be professional degree. The candidate will be required to work for at least one year after he completes B. Arch. Only after that he will be eligible to appear for professional registration examination carried out by the council of Architecture. On passing this exam he will be registered with the council and can use title of Architect.

Another change will be the education and institutes will move to self regulatory mode. The colleges will be required to maintain the minimum standards in Architectural education on their own without monitoring from any regulating authority. Possibly, the current system of granting intake by the regulatory body will go and institutes themselves will have to decide how many students they will admit. It means the institution will have to introspect and decide the number of students they can sustain without compromising on quality of education. Initially this likely to lead to chaos. Few institutions may admit huge number of students and not able to impart the expected quality of education. However, over the period of time, I trust, the system will mature and institutions after learning some hard lessons will come out with some standards for themselves.

There are some questions arising of this arrangement. Will this four years degree be accepted as UG qualification by the Indian and/or foreign universities for admission to masters degree course? Or the candidate will have to appear for CoA exam and get registered as an architect before he /she can apply for admission?

Let us hope all these questions get answered from MHRD or CoA before the scheme gets implemented.

Liberal Arts in education..

Indian school education system has over the years developed a complete disregard for liberal arts. Drawing, painting, music, dance, craft, are the subjects reserved only for junior classes. After 6th or 7th standard these subjects cease to exist. (This is very evident in poor students’ efforts to draw in NATA, AIEEE, and similar aptitude tests for admission to architecture course.) Even in junior classes they are looked down upon as irrelevant, time pass subjects. Instead, the kids are very heavily burdened of Science and Mathematics studies. Relevance of the depth of study of all the sciences and mathematics we learn during school days in everyday life is questionable. In fact, the relevance is never told to the kids. Only handful get engaged in careers that makes use of all this grounding in science and mathematics.

I believe, exposure to liberal arts plays very important role in personality building. In the today’s fast, taxing and stressful professional/ work routine liberal arts provide much required solace and rejuvenation to a human being. Engaging yourself in a hobby or practice of art is engrossing and makes you forget your day to day stresses.

We tend to look at and draw inspiration from the developed world. In this process we adapt many bad things of the developed world and ignore many good things. It is common in the developed world to spend the weekend at a picnic spot. The picnic is arranged keeping in mind main activity that is always related to some liberal art or serious hobby. Citizens take great pride in their hobbies and activities related to Art from they like and practice.

It is essential that our great educationists and school managements take a fresh, unbiased look at school education upto +2 level and attempt to make it more balanced and aiming to make good citizen.

ability to question

Our school education system maims our students throughout this 12 years ordeal. Students are discouraged to ask questions. If one dares, he/she is ridiculed by the teacher in front of the class. May be the ridiculed student still continues asking questions but the whole episode discourages many other classmates, who witness the event, from asking questions fearing embarrassment they might have to face if teacher ridicules their question. To very great extent parents also contribute to this phenomenon in the similar manner.

There are many reasons for this behavior of teachers. Possibly they do not have enough time at hand to devote to question answer sessions. They have to deliver too much in too little time. Other possibility is the teacher does not know the answer and is reluctant to accept his ignorance.

The ability to question is very important for an Architect. Unless you question you cannot possibly search for answers. If there is no search for answers, there is no research. If there is no research there is no innovation, no evolution and there cannot be any transformation. Building up a question is also important process. In fact, one must be formally taught as to how to develop a question. One needs to build an ability to critically review the situation and question the right or wrong.