Online course for new engg college teachers likely

IITs will train 30,000 incumbents during the 12th Five-Year Plan

The Centre is planning to introduce a part-time online Masters course to train fresh engineering graduates appointed by various technical institutions as faculty members to meet shortage.

The Masters’ in Engineering Education course will be conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) through live video lectures online using the National Knowledge Network (NKN), a state-of-the-art pan-Indian resource-sharing network, created by the government in collaboration with premier technical institutes.

Many engineering college are forced to recruit fresh engineering graduates as teachers due to shortage. These fresh recruits need training in pedagogy as well as knowledge upgrade and the existing training institutions are limited, a Human Resource Development Ministry official said.

“Since, it is not feasible for the colleges to release these teachers for undergoing training. The plan is to set up a new part-time Masters’ degree in Engineering Education to be conducted by the IITs.

The degree, designed for faculty from engineering colleges, will be conducted online, through live video lectures using the NKN, thus eliminating the need for participants to be relieved of normal teaching duties,” he added.

The ministry aims at training about 30,000 untrained engineering teachers appointed during the twelfth five year plan through the programme and another 30,000 to 40,000 in the13th Plan. “It is estimated that 6 to 7 thousand young faculty can be handed out each year,” an official said.

There are 3,345 engineering colleges established in the country with about 90 percent of them being private unaided institutions. While the net enrolment has increased over two years, the shortage of faculties in these technical continues to stand at 20 per cent since 2010.

About 35 per cent of the faculty posts are presently vacant in 15 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and another 33 percent of posts are lying vacant in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs).

“Arising of vacancies and filling up thereof is a continuous process. Institutes plan suitable strategies to attract and retain quality faculty members,” a Ministry official said.

To meet the shortages in engineering colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has allowed recruitment of teachers with B-Tech. qualification as Pro-term Lecturer for a limited period of 3 years with the condition that they would secure masters qualification within the said period.

To encourage greater intake in M-Tech programmes so that faculty shortages could be minimized, the AICTE has also permitted second shift in the existing institutions, the official added.