Professor Suhas Sukhatme has said that the government should revive schemes to enhance the quality of teachers in technical institutes across the country and also to increase the faculty number to improve the distorted student-teacher ratio. He was speaking on the theme 'Some perspectives on Technical Education in India' during the 10th V G Kulkarni Memorial lecture at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.Professor Emeritus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Bombay), Sukhatme said schemes like the erstwhile Technical Teachers Training (TTT) with attractive incentives should be revived.
"Such schemes would attract and encourage the graduates to do Masters and PhD programmes and come into technical teaching line and bring out the best talent among technical teaching community, especially in the private sector," said Sukhatme.
Sukhatme said the credit of growth in number of technical educational institutions and thus the number of students since 1951 goes to the private sector. However, the quality of technical faculty in these institutions has to be improved to a large extent to increase the employability of students coming out of these institutes.
Quoting figures, he said the total graduates passed out of technical institutions in 1951 was 4500 while in 2011 it is nearly three lakh which was adequate.
There is a great deficit especially at PhD level,he said. Sukhatme said the ideal (desirable) teacher-student ratio was 1:8 but atleast we should be able to achieve 1:15 (like in IITs).
In private institutions it is currently 1:30 in most cases, he pointed out. Sukhatme, former Director of IIT-B and Chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board said it was also necessary for technical institutions to retain the existing faculty by encouraging them with performance-related incentives.
Prof. Suhas Pandurang Sukhatme. He has held leading academic and administrative positions with different institutions and organizations. He was honoured with the Padmashree Award in 2001 by the Government of India for his service to our nation. He also received the S. S. Bhatnagar Award for Engineering Sciences in 1983.
Prof. Sukhatme has extensive teaching and research experience in the field of Heat Transfer Engineering and Energy. He was Director of IIT-Bombay from 1995 to 2000. He also served for five years (2000-2005) as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Based in Bombay, he still continues teaching at IIT-Bombay.
Prof. Sukhatme has extensive teaching and research experience in the field of Heat Transfer Engineering and Energy. He was Director of IIT-Bombay from 1995 to 2000. He also served for five years (2000-2005) as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Based in Bombay, he still continues teaching at IIT-Bombay.
[Source: IBNLive]
