New education policy boon for 10,000 technical colleges: AICTE

Ludhiana: Federation of Self Financing Technical Institutions (FSFTI), Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) and Joint Association of Colleges (JAC) jointly organized a webinar on the Impact of New Education Policy on Technical Education: Opportunities and Challenges. Professor Anil. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE was the chief guest on this occasion. Dr. MP Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE, & Professor Rajive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE New Delhi were guests of honour in this webinar. Dr. Anshu Kataria, Chairman, FSFTI; PUCA; Aryans Group of Colleges was the Moderator of this session.

Sh. Anil Sahasrabudhe Chairman, AICTE, while addressing said that the New Education Policy will change the education system of the entire country. The policy has all the ingredients to address the issues which have affected technical education in the country and overcome the crisis, he added. While the industry is looking for quality and competent manpower, the system has been churning out lakhs of graduates who are not fit to be employed. This policy has laid down the foundations of futuristic education in India solving employment problems also.

Dr. M. P. Poonia, Vice Chairman, AICTE while interacting said that after 34 years, the Modi Government has taken a big initiative by introducing New Education Policy. But this policy has come up with a lot of opportunities & challenges. On one hand more than 10000 technical colleges across the country have the option to offer multidisciplinary courses but at the same time institutes with quality education would survive.

Poonia further added that the graded autonomy will be given to institutions on the basis of performance of the institute which will be very supportive for the colleges. Colleges have to upgrade themselves with the latest technology so that they can compete with the world's best colleges, he urged.

Professor Rajive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE said that the policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic undergraduate education with flexible curriculum, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. The focus will be on testing concepts and knowledge application, he added.

Mr. RS Munirathanam (Tamil Nadu); Shri KVK Rao  (Andhra/Telangana); Professor Ramdas (Maharashtra); Dr. Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal (Punjab); Professor Lalit Aggarwal (Delhi and Haryana); Dr. Arvind Agarwal (Rajasthan); Sh. Purushotam Sharma (Himachal Pradesh); Engg. BS Yadav (Madhya Pradesh); Sh. Janak Khandelwal (Gujarat); Sh. Bijoyananda Chowdhury (North-East); Utpal Das (West Bengal); Sardar Satnam Singh Sandhu; Mr. Amit Sharma; Sardar Jagjit Singh (Punjab) were the speakers in the webinar. More than 5,000 technical colleges from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, North East etc. participated in this webinar.