New Delhi, December 4: The future for science students seems bright, if the suggestions made for the XI Technical Education Plan are anything to go by.

President APJ Abdul Kalam today joined other speakers on meeting challenges to academic institutions for quality science education at a national seminar at Delhi University. "Universities must partner in meeting country's need for nuclear sources of energy. In India, we have rich resources of thorium and this needs to be utilised,'' Kalam said. "We also require tie-ups of defence and science laboratories like DRDO and ISRO with universities like DU for young talent,'' he said. For DU atleast, this can be a reality, as the varsity is working on two nuclear science courses of study: an MTech for science students, and a chance to do a two-year BTech in Nuclear Physics after doing a B Sc.

Kalam also espoused a unique system for India to follow: "Indian education systems need to create two cadres of personnel: youth with expertise on special skills or unique ideas, at the higher secondary level, and youth with research and technology expertise... It is essential to increase the output of the higher education system from the existing 9% to 20% by 2015, 30% by the year 2020 and 50% by the year 2040. Others who are not covered by the higher education will have world class skill sets,'' he said.

Meanwhile, R Chidamabaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India also put forward current suggestions for the XI Plan. "There are some concrete suggestions that need to be worked on. This includes introducing a 5-year integrated MSc programme (a double degree, ie BSc and MSc) in more universities. Another suggestion that the SK Joshi Steering Committee for attracting students to science made was giving a 15-year career support programme to science students, and further giving tax incentives to industry that employs these students,'' he said. Other suggestions made to the Knowlegde Commission are a two-year Btech after a BSc, which Delhi University is working on.

The President also released the book, Forty Years of Kothari Commission recommendations Reforms and Reflections by Feroze Ahmed and Suresh C Garg.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=211973

Indians proudly claim to have the largest pool of engineers in the country. This is the resource that forms the backbone of India's rapidly growing IT industry. Indeed, the Indian 'techie' is almost a clichéd figure, parodied in legend and cartoons for their smarts.

But the much-heralded engineers working in Silicon Valley are, for the most part, students of the more prestigious Indian engineering colleges. Many of the so-called 'engineers' come from institutions with poor faculty, shortfalls in computers, shoddy laboratories and shockingly, no access to the Internet.

These are the findings of a committee of the University of Mumbai that was set up to assess facilities at private, unaided engineering colleges affiliated to it. In all, the report found 42 colleges falling way below the standards set by the All India Council for Technical Education, and it included even reasonably well known colleges such as Rizvi College and KJ Somaiya College.

For decades, Indian parents have tried to push their children into medical or engineering careers, which epitomise the Great Indian Middle Class Dream. An engineering degree signifies a passport to everything one could want in life - a respectable job, a lucrative salary and a possible career in the West.

With the spiralling demand for higher education came a rash of private institutes, many of them managed by organisations controlled or owned by influential state politicians keen to cash in on the boom. But where they were enthusiastic, they failed to bring the rigour and discipline running an institution requires. The result is that hundreds of engineers are out there in jobs without having learnt the subject in any meaningful way.

This is not to say that privately run institutions are all bad. Indeed, apart from the autonomous IITs and the Regional Engineering Colleges, there are several privately controlled engineering institutes that continue to maintain high standards.

The way out is to continuously monitor standards of all colleges rather than do it in one fell swoop as has been done. That way, laggards can be weeded out at an early stage instead of letting hundreds of students suffer. Clearly, the authorities supposed to maintain quality control have failed. India needs its engineers, but they must be fully qualified instead of just holding a piece of paper that amounts to nothing in the end.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1067754

NEW DELHI: The Government proposes to conduct a linguistic survey of the country over the next ten years.

The total budgetary requirement for the exercise has been estimated at Rs 280 crore during the 11th Plan period and at Rs 308 crore during the 12th Plan, Minister for State for HRD D Purandeswari told Lok Sabha in a written reply on Tuesday.

She said the 'Linguistic Survey of India' report is likely to be available after ten years of its commissioning.

The Minister informed that there are about 350 languages in the country that have fewer than 10,000 speakers and some of them are on the verge of extinction.

There is a proposal before the government for a scheme for protection and development of endangered and smaller languages on the lines of the existing schemes for languages included in the Eighth Schedule.

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, has worked on documentation of at least 45 minor languages, the Minister said.

The government is setting up polytechnics in backward districts for expansion of technical education.

In a written reply to the House, Purandeswari said the government has identified certain districts on the basis of criteria like educationally backward minority concentration areas, Schedule V and VI areas, female literacy less than 10 per cent and Integrated Tribal Development Project Area districts, where polytechnics will be set up.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/
Govt_to_conduct_linguistic_survey_of_India/articleshow/716768.cms