Euphemistically or otherwise, the way we humans describe technology is ‘down-to-earth’, ‘objective’, ‘practical’, and ‘useful’. The paradox is that good and sound technology always emerges out of the fantasy thinking of a dreamer… but it is rightly said that even these dreams need to be laced with facts and figures. So what is technology really? Is it real or is it fiction?
Technology is as good as the person who is behind the machine or device or gadget… which means we need to have engineering graduates or technologists who are proactively involved with techno-functions and have an intuitive understanding of its myriad nuances. Is this really happening? Are we really producing engineers and technologists who rise above the obvious and have the power to tame the wild-side of technology? The current state of professionals in the tech squad doesn’t seem to be very promising… nor does the state of the future flag-bearers seems any brighter.
There are concerns all over that technical education is slipping. There are two different voices that are trying to be heard over the din of this tech landslide that has already begun.
Too many institutes today
A recent report pointed out that the ‘AICTE has witnessed an 80 percent decrease in the number of applications for approval of new institutions over the last four years.’ This voice says that technical institutes are now going to get streamlined in a way that only the better ones will survive. The clamour for students is obvious when one sees the mad rush to capture or poach potential students during admission time. The demand-supply ratio is right now saying clearly that we seem to be having more institutes than students.
Too less institutes in the future
There is another voice that is talking about hypothetical onrush of more students in the coming years which, as S S Mantha of AICTE puts it, is that currently ‘only 52% of our class XII students are being bale to pass their Board exams. What if the other half passes the exam, then do we have enough institutes to accommodate them?’
The right perspective
The government and the ministers want more institutes as this is a politically sound decision. The detractors feel that our students are opting for only the better institutes and, therefore, the good ones need to be shut.
The reality is that good technical education surrounded by technologically mature infrastructure is what breeds excellence. We need good machines to work on and we also need all the good facilitators of technology to teach how to work on them. In the absence of any of these, our dream of getting the best engineers and technologists will remain a figment of our imagination, a fantasy.
2012_The Real Fiction_A fantasy called a technical course
Arvind Passey
Written on 23 August 2012
Published in ‘The Education Post’ 0f 27 August 2012
