Directorate of technical Education Maharashtra state has prepared a perspective plan for technical Education in Maharashtra ( visit
http://fileserver.mkcl.org/approvedinstitues/OasisModules_Files/Files/69.pdf?did=186 )
Responses were invited on this perspective plan. Here is my response:
Vision 2020
It is essential to see that the technical education in
Maharashtra is developed to respond to societal needs and aspirations.
Expansion
As on date ratio of admissions for engineering, pharmacy and
management education to higher education is adequate but not regionally well
balanced.
For Architecture ratio is still not very adequate and also
is regionally imbalanced.
Demand pattern does not reflect Architecture related jobs.
Growth of Architecture related jobs have direct relation to social well being
and economic accomplishment of society in general. This is
different from engineering as the job growth in engineering is mainly dependent
on industrial growth and promotion.
District wise augmentation
Data as shown regarding Architecture admissions is
incorrect. In 2011-12, with few exceptions, all the seats at undergraduate
courses in Architecture all over Maharahstra were full. (e.g. Your data shows
60 intake for Aurangabad district and 0 admitted. Reality for 2011-12 was
intake was 80 and all seats were filled) Please correct the data. Please
contact Maharashtra Association of Schools of Architecture for correct data.
Issues and recommendations in expansion
Community college is good idea. However, they should be
expressly linked with premier institutions to get good standing and value. e.g.
COEP running couple of community colleges in rural areas makes more sense than
a private engineering college with little or no standing running the same.
At the same time we must encourage cross discipline
education where credits could be transferred across discipline. A science
student should be encouraged to acquire some credits from engineering or
performing arts or management or architecture and vice versa. Such education
will surely add value to overall education system.
All the old colleges with good standing should be actively
supported and encouraged to become autonomous. Particularly government and
government aided colleges should be immediately made autonomous. Actually,
educational standards in old, reputed institutes are declining because of
clubbing them with new institutions under the same university and faculty. All
colleges say more than 20 years old, should be allowed to set their own
curriculum and scheme of examinations that is only supervised by the university
without active intervention.
Equity/ inclusiveness.
In Architecture education, particularly in government and
government aided colleges gender ratio is much different than other disciplines
like engineering, etc. Often there are more than 70% girls and less than 30%
boys. May be in other professional streams – medicine, accountancy and law the
situation is not very different. This has definite reflection in profession as the
percentage of girls actually pursuing profession is very low. As such,
availability of trained personnel in profession is declining and shortage of
availability is already visible. It must
be reviewed and decided whether 30% reservation for girls is necessary for such
courses.
Affordability is another very important reason for low
enrollment. In reality, technical education is out of reach financially for
many who wish to take it up and have right aptitude to do so. Reserving certain number of seats in all
institutions for deserving candidates who pay same amount fees as in government
institutions is essential to overcome this problem. Whether this is to be done
with cross subsidy within institute or through scholarships extended to such
students by the government needs to be decided.
As a parallel exercise, in certain rural areas and small
towns, where private institutions are reluctant to establish an institution for
higher learning, government should take initiative and establish such
institutes. Existing renowned government and government aided institutions may
be asked to take up this task. However, it is also essential to control and see
that the students admitted to such institutes are from its defined catchment
area only so that seats are not filled up by students from urban areas.
Government and all its arms like local bodies, etc. should
get its entire consultancy and research requirements fulfilled through academic
institutions. This can a) save taxpayers’ money b) Keep the institutions updated
of happenings in the field and eventually these institutions will be capable of
offering such consultancy to private sector and generate good amount of
endowment to support its own research and also subsidize education of needy and
deserving students.
Excellence.
Student: faculty
ratio is marred by many factors such as recruitment rules, reservations,
etc. US/UK Universities mentioned in the
report do not have any policy for reservations in jobs by virtue of caste/
religion/ language, etc. Educational and teaching merit is the only criteria.
Many teaching positions are vacant as colleges are not able to get teachers of
required reservation category and also of good academic standing. Often,
academic merit criteria is diluted or overlooked to fill up a position that is
reserved and undeserving candidates are recruited in such position. This
compromises the education quality also.
Similarly, being good teacher and being knowledgeable person
and two different things. A knowledgeable person with Ph.D. and number of
papers to his credit may not be very good teacher. On the other hand a person
with very basic qualification can also be an excellent teacher. Having aptitude
to teach and ability to generate interest in students to learn does not have direct
relationship with academic accomplishments of a person. This is a difficult
area to deal with but the consensus could be evolved and system of identifying
good and academically sound teachers could be devised. Good teacher, not very
highly qualified can be recruited and encouraged to upgrade his academic
qualification during his tenure.
The system today is very much examination oriented and
therefore classroom based. This has its roots in school education. School
education has adapted this method due to shortage of higher education
opportunities of good quality; leading to extreme competition.
We must change the orientation from exam to knowledge. For
this the established system of evaluation need complete review and overhaul.
Once the importance is given to actual knowledge and capability of application
of acquired knowledge rather than passing examination, the focus will
automatically move from classroom based to practical.
To help teachers upgrade themselves and keep them updated,
their teaching load needs to be reduced a little and they must also be free of
many non teaching and administrative tasks that they are expected to do. (e.g.
assisting and managing tasks like census, elections, other clerical duties and
preparing of non academic reports, etc.) In reality, many teachers get very
little time to read, carry out research and upgrade themselves. Keeping
teachers busy with learning and research only is the requirement of the day.
Improving quality
I fully agree with most of the recommendations for improving
quality. How to bring these recommendations into reality remains challenge.
For improving faculty, establishment of academic staff
colleges is necessity. Rather than calling them academic staff colleges they
should be called and function as resource centers. They should be independent centers for each
discipline as each discipline has its own specific requirements not shared with
other disciplines. Such resource centers will help teachers upgrade their
skills and knowledge through Short term courses, Ph. D. programs, research
programs, etc. These centers should also serve as publication houses that can
help teachers publish their research, thoughts and books. Further, these
centers should also help universities and institution in preparing curriculums,
design evaluation systems, etc. It should also create repository of knowledge
and learning resources for teachers. National Institute of Advanced Studies in
Architecture, Pune, (NIASA) established by the Council of Architecture is one
of the good efforts in this direction.
Infrastructure development needs fresh thought. Normally,
grants are available for establishing infrastructure but no grants are
available for maintenance and up gradation. While sanctioning the grants for
infrastructure there should be three distinct components – one time grant for
establishing infrastructure, annual maintenance grant paid every year,
upgradation grant paid after few years.
When one moves from terminal/ annual and university based
exams to continuous college based evaluation, the responsibility of teacher and
college increases. Many teachers and colleges are reluctant to assume this
responsibility. Teachers at times do not have courage to tell non-performing
students of their failure to meet the criteria of evaluation. Teachers
therefore try to pass the buck to the university and the external examiners. Occasionally,
they are also pressurized by the higher ups to pass un-deserving students for
sake of displaying better overall performance of the institutes and also for
financial compulsions. How many colleges and teachers are ready to accept
autonomy in this area remains to be seen. In absence of transparent system
there also exists possibility of victimization due to inter-personal
relationships.
Research
Facilities to pursue Ph.D. should be widely available to
everyone, particularly to teachers. In professional education, in lieu of Ph.
D. the teachers should be encouraged to practice since every assignment in
practice is a mini research opportunity in itself and such assignment brings in
rich practical knowledge. Further, it also brings in a possibility to involve
students who can learn as well as earn. However, teacher must document the
entire assignment for benefit of others. Government and industry also must
create opportunities for basic as well as applied research and provide
sponsorships for the same.
Similarly, the resource institutions should themselves
undertake research in technical education field and use certain colleges as
testing beds for the research in technical education as well as education
technology.
Residential campuses where teachers and students live on the
same campus as the institute always provides better environment for research. Good
examples are IITs, IISERs and IIMs. Such kind of residential campuses should be
highly encouraged.
Monitoring and evaluation of framework
Certain confusions must be cleared. For example,
accreditation of engineering education is globally covered under ‘Washington
Accord’ but Architecture education is not covered under this accord.
Accreditation of Architecture education is covered globally under ‘Canberra
Accord’. This must be understood and architecture colleges should therefore be
provided with independent program for accreditation that is complies with the
‘Canberra Accord’. Most of the developed
nations are already signatories of Canberra Accord and by virtue of being
commonwealth country India is included under Commonwealth association of
Architects (CAA) that is signatory for the Canberra Accord. The accreditation
criteria for architecture courses should be based ion CAA program.
Globally, since ages, Architecture education is not clubbed
with the engineering/ technical education but is recognized as independent
faculty that is highly inter-disciplinary in nature. It’s high time we
recognize this and grant independent faculty status to Architecture education.
