AICTE asks institutes to upgrade syllabus

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked the engineering and other technical institutions to update their syllabus with the “new knowledge” and make them “industry compliant”.

Human Resource Development Minister Smriti informed netizens about the move during her first-ever interaction with them on social networking site Facebook on Tuesday.

“The AICTE is appealing to institutions to update their syllabus so that students can benefit from new knowledge and become industry compliant,” the Union Minister said responding to Facebook user L N Mittal.

She was on a visit to Gujarat’s Maghrol village, which she has adopted under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Mittal, a PhD from BITS Pilani and an academician from Panchkula, Haryana, expressed concern over the opening of “more and more” private engineering colleges in the country, saying they had become “business centres in the garb of degrees (awarding institutions)”.

He also underlined that “good polytechnics” were being converted into engineering colleges while it was important to open more ITIs and polytechics in the country, urging the minister to look into his suggestions.

“We have now allowed engineering institutions to start skill-based education in second shift using the same infrastructure,” the Union Minister maintained in her response to the concerns raised by Mittal.

Raji Jairaj urged Irani to constitute a team of young as well as older “seasoned” academicians for setting standards for the National Eligibility Test conducted by the UGC, claiming that students still had to answer questions in the nationwide test that were “way too irrelevant”.

“I will meet the UGC Chairman (Ved  Prakash)  tomorrow  and forward your suggestion,” Irani told the Fb user.