MANAGEMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The role of technical education is crucial in a nation’s development as it is the major producer of human capital. It may be emphasized that
education is not so much as what is learnt by students in the classrooms, but as how they learn it. The environment where the potential of this human capital is to be tested and harnessed is changing constantly with time. Therefore, the education process of the technical institutes has to be directed such that the students are able to give their best, both in terms of intellectual and skillful efforts. This paper attempts to analyze the structure of the centers of higher technical education and suggests strategies to improve their performance. It also highlights the importance of participative learning exercise, which stresses on the equal and interactive participation of students in the teaching process, in conjunction with well-trained faculty, technical manpower and infrastructure. Realizing that the present education system is highly conceptual greater emphasis needs to be laid on laboratory classes, so as to give true understanding of tools, techniques and concepts covered in the curriculum. It is recommended that the Institutes need to build up interface with industries and research laboratories, for a win-win situation. Such a joint venture between the collaborating Industry and the Institute offers the industries an increased scope of finding solutions to the problems of their interest, with the help of specialists/experts available at the Institute. The institute on the other hand gains in terms of providing its faculty and students exposure to the real life engineering problems. It is envisaged that such interactions would help in reducing the big conceptual gap between theories taught in the institutions and the practice adopted in industry. The paper also discusses the necessary, technological advances, which need to be implemented/added to the traditional system, so as to cater to the demands of the future generations. It is hoped that the recommendations made in this paper would also motivate and help the faculty in adopting new teaching methodology to remove obsolescence, leading to quality education in these Institutes.