Hyderabad : Polytechnic students make better engineers than students who pursue engineering after intermediate, Commissioner of Technical Education Navin Mittal observed. Mittal said that polytechnic students gain more practical experience and also more engineering education than their intermediate counterparts.
In their three-year course, polytechnic students undergo one year of science education and two years of engineering education followed by more three years of engineering engineering education as part of B.Tech. Compared to this, he said intermediate students undergo two years of science education, followed by four years of engineering education and gain comparatively less practical experience.
Mittal, who recently took charge of Commissioner of Technical Education as well as Collegiate Education, was speaking at a one day convention on polytechnic education in the city on Sunday. The convention was organized by All India Federation of Polytechnic Teachers’ Organisation (AIFPTO) along with Telangana Gazetted Polytechnic All Lecturers Association. (TG PALA) MP Poonia, Vice Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) also spoke at the event and stressed on promoting polytechnic education saying that while high investment has been made on polytechnic colleges in the country, the usage is very low. He said that while the 4,000 polytechnic colleges have a capacity of 12 lakh students, as of now only 7 lakh students are admitted.
Poonia said a major problem in polytechnic education is archaic course curriculum and that the AICTE is revising the polytechnic course curriculum with focus on outcome based technical education with more emphasis on practicals, which will soon be out and to be implemented across country. He also said that there will be reforms in examination pattern of polytechnic education and more faculty development programmes will be conducted by AICTE.
Poonia stressed that states should take initiative to develop content for various polytechnic subjects in regional languages. He said that huge sums of money is available to be spent on such schemes in polytechnic education but polytechnic colleges are not coming forward with proposals. He ruled out possibility of polytechnic colleges getting shifted under the authority of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Speaking to Express on the sidelines of the event, Poonia said that technical institutions will not be allowed to increase their intake or set up new campuses unless they are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). He also put an end to speculation over the ‘exit test’ for engineering students saying that there is currently no discussion over the exit test. When asked if the idea of exit test is scrapped, he replied in affirmative.
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