More tech schools
More reason to cheer for would-be technology students. The Indian government has just approved nine more National Institutes of Technology (NITs) that will become operational from next year onwards either on lease campuses or in older NITs. The campuses themselves will take five more years to come up.
The move comes close on the heels of the HRD ministry’s revolutionary measures to change the way this country has traditionally viewed education.
For starters, these institutes would cost the government close to Rs 2,350 crore and most of them have been planned in the north-eastern states, seemingly to make up for their gross shortage of professional tech schools in the region. So, next year on, if all goes well, we will have NITs in Manipur, Mizoram, Goa , Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Pudducherry, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
These would join the list of 20 NITs already operational in the country.
This brings us back to a question debated on the Nature India forum for long – are more institutes the answer to the problems facing India’s science education. Is quantity the key or quality or none? Where is reform most needed?
Alongside this, the government also approved amendments to the Organs Transplantation Act. Now there would be stringent penalties on persons or hospitals violating the provisions. A relook at the regulations was long due, what with the blatant violations to the act and a thriving human organ trade in India.
Comments
May I ask why you used the Royal Bengal Tiger, the national animal of Bangladesh in your banner for Nature magazine's India section?
Bangladesh comprises the majority of Bengal, so India should desist from usurping Bangladeshi Bengal Tigers as its 'logo' on its banner.
Posted by: Tawhid | September 23, 2009 04:26 AM
Tawhid: though this is not the subject of this post, I will, nonetheless, answer your query very briefly. Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the national animal of India too. I really don't see how using this logo might be unjustified or harm any Bangladeshi interest.
P.S: Nature India is the India-specific portal of the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and not Nature journal's India section.
Subhra Priyadarshini
Editor, Nature India
Posted by: Subhra Priyadarshini | September 23, 2009 07:41 AM
It won't help much. We do not have trained faculties. Colleges, government and private, are being run by sub-mediocre faculties. It reflects in the knowledge and understanding levels of science post-graduates and engineering students. These activities only generate more buildings and mediocre students. It's not the solution to our problems. We need better faculties. The Indian post-docs must return and serve here and for that the government must make things comfortable for them.
Posted by: Jesse | October 6, 2009 12:03 PM
I do think we need more such schools. While Indians in US have the highest number of graduates per 1000 adults, the number in India is abysmal. But there are severe roadblocks:
1) Huge lack of trained PhD faculty
2) Lack of jobs for these students when they graduate. IITs, India's premier tech schools, sometimes have problems during placements, so it is anybody's guess what the fate of students from these Institutes will be when they graduate. Job creation and job growth must take place concurrently.
3) While ramping up our higher education system is imperative, we mostly focus on engineering, leaving other streams in the lurch.
Posted by: Debangshu Mukherjee | October 8, 2009 12:21 AM