Bringing Order Within Chaos

The education system is one of the favorite topics for criticism in India,

and probably anywhere in the world. Millions of words have been written and more

would appear on this subject with time. Institutes have been created to analyze

the system at various levels–namely government, professional and private fora.

The subject still remains interesting and the development of the perfect system

continues to be elusive.

"The ideal curriculum is one that empowers the passout to handle whatever technology is hot on that day..." RATTAN K DATTA

To critically analyse any system, it is always useful to go into its

historical evolution. The ancient Indian education system was based on the

Gurukul concept–the mode and content of training was decided by the Guru.

Emphasis was on learning and was not job-centric. The famous Nalanda University

and other institutes followed this pattern.

The British period witnessed strong growth of the education system. After

independence, the government took a number of steps to standardize the system.

The Constitution provided ‘Right of Education’ to every citizen. UGC was

created and with the growth of technical education, came AICTE. In the early

1950s, patterned on the best of institutes in USA and Europe, a few centers of

excellence were established in the form of the IITs. Before the establishment of

the first IIT at Kharagpur, there was only one other centre of excellence–the

IISc, through the efforts of Sir Jamshed Ji Tata, with Nobel Laureate Sir CV

Raman as its founder director. We have since come a long way.

The birth of IT education



The eighties witnessed a growing demand for IT education. The software

industry was a gold mine, receiving overwhelming support from the government,

both at the state and central levels. IT degrees became a passage for lucrative

jobs. Seats in IITs and RECs were limited, while demand was sky high. This led

to the mushrooming of private teaching institutions.

Obsolescence and curriculum development



Technology is advancing so fast that it is said that if "aerospace

technology had been developing with the same speed as IT", we could travel

around the world in a few minutes for next to nothing. This advancement also

brings obsolescence of both hardware and software equipment and tools. This

impacts the curriculum development in universities. The ideal curriculum is such

that when a student passes out of the university, he/she is in a position to

handle the latest technology entering the market.

Thus, the course and faculty development for running such courses have to

keep apace with technology. There is thus a continuous need to monitor

advancements in technology and update the curriculum accordingly.

At present, a large number of colleges in the country teach outmoded courses.

There is significant variation in the subjects (and depth) taught, both at

inter-university and intra-university level. This is a serious cause of concern.

It requires, therefore, a mechanism to minimize these variations. A special

government committee noted that current as well as projected centers of formal

education would not be in a position to meet the targeted need of thousands of

IT workers. It was therefore decided to consider a non-formal education paradigm

with active participation of private training institutes existing then in an

unorganized sector. The rest is history.

As Indian IT moves forward, so will training institutes and colleges. As with

any industry segment, even the IT sector will only be as good as its people, and

only continued efforts on the education front will see India maintain and

further emphasize its position as an IT superpower.

Rattan K Datta



The author is past president of the Computer Society of India.