There are many developments which make one think that our engineering education system is either broken or headed towards that. Many students no longer like to attend classes and most of what we teach is perceived to be irrelevant to the job market. Even at several leading educational institutes around the world, only about 25% of the students end up in a job relevant to their core engineering discipline. Several problem areas have been identified and several measures have been proposed to remedy the situation, but frankly speaking nothing so far seems to be making much difference. Several institutes even brought about an overhaul of their entire curriculum over the last few years, but again with little impact. One of the reasons is that very few of these steps taken were bold enough but most were merely minor tweaks here and there. But of course, taking bold steps merely for the sake of displaying bravery is not a good idea and can lead to large instabilities. Also, bold steps need not be taken with a stamp of lived-happily-ever-after. We need to be open to the fact that some of our best decisions may also fail due to a myriad of reasons. Bold steps need to also have a carefully planned exit option in case they don't help in improving the situation. We need more of a start-up culture in decision making.
One of the things that leading educational institutes in India have been demanding for a long time is greater autonomy. The government is even considering identifying few institutes which can be granted lot more autonomy in their functioning. Now, should not these educational institutes extend the same favour to their brightest students? We could identify the top 20-30 students admitted to the UG batch of each IIT based on other academic achievements (KVPY, Olympiads, science projects, etc) and give them lot more autonomy regarding the courses/projects they want to do. These students should ideally not be tied to any particular department and should be strongly encouraged to get into more inter-disciplinary projects. This scheme can be implemented for a period of 5 years after which it can either be retained as it is, extended to more students or closed down depending on its outcomes.
With greater autonomy, comes greater responsibility. As they say, there are no free lunches. Even at religious places which offer free food, its not considered good to go away without donating something depending on one's ability. Educational institutes and students which are given greater autonomy must be held more accountable for their outcomes. The batch of 20-30 students who are allowed much greater autonomy in choosing their courses/projects must also be expected to contribute in significant ways to the overall development of the institute and society. They should either publish good quality research papers or develop solutions to solve one technological or societal problems. And thats not a hard thing to do for such smart people in four years if one is committed from Day 1.
It is a widely accepted fact that the attention span of our students has been steadily decreasing over the years due to several reasons and classes are nowadays more and more expected to be interesting (whatever that means). There has also been a huge upsurge of online material due to which attending classes is no longer the primary source of learning/information. One of the changes due to this development has been that attendance is no longer compulsory in many institutes. Though this is a good move, what is lacking is a desire to bring about major changes in our teaching methodologies. What is being done at best is to show a few videos or demos in classes which perhaps make it a little interesting but still doesn't address the real problem. Students can watch these videos and demos from their rooms also. Why do they need to go to a classroom? In these times, the only reason to go to a classroom is to gain a larger and deeper perspective of the course contents. And this perspective can only be gained through discussions. We need to seriously discourage lecturing and promote a culture of discussions in classrooms. There is a well established method known as the Socratic method using which one can teach a large variety of topics (even math) through discussion.
Many students in engineering institutes are from rural backgrounds. As of now, there doesn't seem to be any effort in connecting the education these students receive with the changes they can bring about in their own village. The main motive of our institutes seem to be to suck talent from our villages and dump it in cities. This is quite damaging in many ways. Education should not only impart skills to our students but also teach them how to use it to solve problems that the society faces. And society does not only mean the concrete jungles but also the places where we have spent our childhood. Students from rural backgrounds should specially be encouraged to highlight the problems that their village faces and also be facilitated to find technological solutions to these problems. One of the problems with our engineering institutes is that there is too much focus on research and too less on development. There is nothing wrong in the research effort that goes into publishing high quality papers or getting patents, but it is a serious problem when this becomes the only parameter of career growth. Faculty members should be equally encouraged to work on developmental problems and specially engage with students from rural backgrounds in this regard.
I am also thinking on the issue which you highlighted in last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI came from village and did B.Tech , M.Tech in cities and landed with a job in MNC.
Now I am going to describe the present situation at my Village. This is the peak time all the farmers in the village would be busy in growing their crops. Since there is no rain fall this year, all of them are thinking what to do now and what to do if this will continue in future. In this area every crops depends on rain fall. There is no bore wells, canals, and dams. In the last two years due to heavy rains most of them got loss.
Some people are already left the village and doing some construction work, managing Paying Guest rooms, and tiffin centers in cities.
Some of them who doesn't wants to leave the village are struggling to make money for their needs. I am thinking how to engage them in a work ( I don't know which work is this) and earn money by staying in village itself.
I got one thought that is dairy farming, but that also need to green grass, water. I need to discuss this with people from my village how will it work there.
Do anyone have suggestions on this? I am very interested to discuss this and make use of current technology to solve this kind of issue.
Thats a very unfortunate situation that many villages are facing. Proper irrigation facilities is a must in all villages. So, if your village doesn't have it, I think its very important to make sincere efforts in that direction. Proper supply of water and electricity is the starting point of all development and reform. I would suggest that you look into it and talk to the local authorities. The money needed for bore wells and canals can also be raised from well-to-do people who have an emotional connect with your village.
DeleteFor a village to prosper, I think it is also important for people from neighbouring areas to visit it for some reason or other. Higher flow of people leads to higher flow of money. You can try to find or create an avenue in your village which can be a point of attraction for others. There might be people passing through your village for going to other places. You can try to look into their problems and create a market in order to address their need.
Also try to study the problems of neighbouring villages. Sometimes two or more villages can come together to solve each other's problems.
Will be happy to discuss further in person!