IT IS not teachers but technology, which is at the centre stage of education, opined eminent educationist and founder Vice-Chancellor of Visveswaraiah Technological University, Belgaum, Karnataka, Dr S Rajshekharaiah.
Speaking to reporters here, Dr Rajshekharaiah who took charge as director Chameli Devi Institute of Technology and Management (CITM), Khandwa Road, said that the world driven by technological revolution was changing fast and the people have to keep pace with the same.
This trend is reflected in the education system also where the curriculum becomes antedated to the new trends of industry and economics.
Speaking from his own experience, he said there were only 78 engineering colleges when he was V-C but today there are more than 150 engineering colleges in Bangalore alone. Engineering earlier had only three fundamental branches namely mechanical, electronic and civil but after the introduction of the ground breaking Computer Science in the early 80’s the number of branches had grown steadfastly with now almost over 40 branches today.
Teaching itself had undergone a sea change from the earlier concepts of teacher oriented and self-oriented to self-moulded where a student goes to college only to obtain a legal degree as corroborative proof of his substantiative knowledge.
However, as the benefit of the latest technologies has not penetrated the rural areas developing knowledge centres of excellence is the call of the day.
{{/usCountry}}However, as the benefit of the latest technologies has not penetrated the rural areas developing knowledge centres of excellence is the call of the day.
{{/usCountry}}In comparison to Bhopal or Indore, Bangalore has about 50 established engineering colleges, cream of teachers who get all benefits, lucrative salary, competitive environment and the likes and the students get a wider range of opportunity for campus selection and exposure to IT companies which are present in the thousands.
However, as IT Park, Microsoft and Google are coming up in Indore the city has an added advantage over other cities in the region and the potential to emerge as a hub of all such activities.
As director of CITM he would utilise his experience and contacts for the benefit of the students and invite experts from the industry for delivering guest lectures not on the subjects mentioned in the curriculum but on the latest needs of the industry so that students get a chance to remain abreast of the latest trends, practices and demands in their future field of work.
Use of electronic means of teaching including power point presentation would be encouraged as well as the moral and ethical parts of education would be imparted in different sessions both to faculty and students.
The endeavour would be on providing holistic education to students using modern means in a state of the art campus while adhering to the ancient Indian precept of ‘guru-shishya parampara’.
He also spoke on industry-institute-interaction with better campus placement prospects for students, the concept of double-degree, need of a teachers training centre and collaboration with national and international institutes/universities for the betterment of education.