Vocational edu should begin from schools, says former AICTE dir

CHENNAI: The quality of the education given to the underprivileged in the country is poor and rarely one or two students from an underprivileged economic background get admission in IITs and IIMs, said Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, Former Director of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and an Alternate President of Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), on Friday.

Talking to DT Next on the sidelines of a national conference of Universities and Colleges organised by the Education Promotion Society for India in Chennai, Chaturvedi said the Tamil Nadu state tops in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) with 52 per cent. He also praised the Tamil Nadu government and the former chief ministers of the state for this high-stand reach in the education sector.

Emphasising the need for transformative higher education through coordinated efforts of all stakeholders, he urged Higher Education Institutions to have a global outlook.

“Vocational subjects should have been taught in schools. So that the students can select their careers after schooling. Degrees without knowledge have no value in the market. The union and state governments should ease the norms for providing educational loans. In India, only 10% to 12% of students get educational loans. The government has to provide scholarships to at least 20% of students and loans to at least 25% of students. The imbalance in the economy reflects education. In addition to the Medical colleges, engineering and art colleges also get donations from the students,” he said.

The former AICTE director added that since 2012, the traditional subjects like Civil, Mechanical, EEE, and ECE goes down and there is zero enrolments in these courses.

“AICTE has allowed HEIs to start various new courses related to computer science. This will help the HEIs to survive. It has been reported that more than 70% of employees working in the service sector include IT, ITeS,” he claimed.