| India plans massive
technical education push
K.C. Krishnadas BENGALURU, India — The government is launching a three-year initiative to boost technical education. The Ministry of Human Resource Development will head the effort designed to overhaul India's education system, which lags other developing countries. Officials said the effort aims to improve the quality of Indian education by expanding the capacity of institutions and creating new ones. Regional, social and gender disparities in higher and technical education are also being addressed in the new strategy, which is being bolstered by a nine-fold budget increase for technical education. At the same time, the ministry said, regional governments need to do more to support technical education. The federal government plans to establish eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, known for producing top researchers for global technology firms. Also planned are two more Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research. Twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology are also planned. As many as 1,300 new regional polytechnic institutes will be established under a National Skill Development Mission. They will target large numbers of trained, blue-collar workers involved in electronics and telecom equipment manufacturing.
India's high-tech sector has long complained about the lack of quality technical education here, where outdated courses, lack of lab equipment, inadequate funding and poor faculty salaries have hurt technical training, especially engineering. Copyright © 2008 TechInsights, a Division of United Business Media Limited. All rights reserved. |