State govt not investing enough in education a growing concern: AICTE chairman
He highlighted shortage of teachers in several technical institutions while addressing the first convocation ceremony of DES Pune University organised by Deccan Education Society
The state government not investing enough in education is a growing concern, said AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) chairman, T G Sitharam, highlighting the shortage of teachers in several technical institutions. AICTE has taken up the issue with the secretary of higher education, urging state governments and institutions to fill up vacant posts at the earliest, he said. “India is on its way to becoming the world’s fourth-largest economy, and this progress is directly linked to investment in higher education. Countries that perform well globally are those that prioritise and invest in education,” Sitharam said. He was addressing the first convocation ceremony of DES Pune University organised by Deccan Education Society.
The AICTE chairman set out a comprehensive roadmap of regulatory and academic reforms intended to modernise technical and professional education in India. He described a multipronged strategy that emphasises digital governance; strengthens research and innovation ecosystems; and deepens industry integration for employability and large-scale teacher training as well as mainstreaming of artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies across non-computer science disciplines.
Sitharam shared that AICTE has been made completely digital and that colleges no longer need to visit AICTE for routine approvals as the regulator will deliver approvals online. AICTE has made research and development (R&D) cells and climate cells mandatory with around 3,000 institutions having already created R&D cells thus far, he said. AICTE will provide a year-long programme of activities so that institutions know what to do to build an R&D culture. Sitharam explained that the R&D push initially focused on engineering colleges will now be expanded to management, design and other disciplines. Each institution will be expected to establish an R&D cell identified with faculty members and running continuous innovation activities throughout the year.
Addressing employability, Sitharam said that AICTE has made ‘inclusion’ mandatory and is introducing industry-integrated programmes under a 2+2 model wherein students will spend part of their programme (one year) working in industry and receive academic credit/s for it. Sitharam argued that these steps are important in the face of rapidly changing industry needs and reiterated that AICTE is continuously updating curricula to keep pace.
To improve pedagogy, AICTE has launched a ‘Centre for Excellence in Engineering Education’; a collaboration with Infosys Foundation, Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and five older Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Infosys Foundation has provided ₹30 crore to support teacher development, Sitharam shared. Under the programme, AICTE will send teachers to these IITs for training not only in computer science but across engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical and electrical) focusing on sample modules and modern teaching methods such as self-learning, collaborative and experiential learning, and technology-assisted instruction. Sitharam described a project called ‘PRACTICE’ aimed at promoting critical thinking and problem solving, especially in tier 3 and tier 4 institutions. Through a partnership with Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance (CRISP) Hyderabad, AICTE is supplying teachers and scaling experiential learning in 1,000 colleges. This initiative focuses on large-scale teacher training so that institutions can adopt hands-on pedagogy. Another initiative launched last year is a postgraduate certification programme for teachers; Sitharam informed. AICTE is training a cohort of institutions to deliver PG certification; the IITs, which train about 5,000 teachers a year, will jointly certify teachers alongside AICTE. The aim is to enable cross-disciplinary teaching.
With regards to AI, AICTE plans to embed AI and technology management across disciplines (civil, mechanical, BBA, BCA and others) and not just in computer science. Sitharam said he will drive the inclusion of AI and data science content into around 25 curricula.
Sitharam noted that there is a shift in student demand for traditional M Tech specialisations and to address this, AICTE is introducing value-added M Tech options such as data science, space technology and defence technology; and planning futuristic co-engineering programmes in computational science and bioengineering. Model curricula for these emerging programmes are being developed. Pointing to practical National Education Policy (NEP) instruments, Sitharam stressed the role of the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) in allowing learners to accumulate credits from courses taken beyond their home campus, noting NEP’s multiple-entry, multi-disciplinary flexibility that enables students to register for parallel degrees and mix learning pathways. Sitharam placed skilling at the centre of employability in an era of rapid technological change.
“Skilling, upskilling and reskilling is the order of the day,” he said, warning that even senior faculty and administrators need continual reskilling to stay relevant in a world shaped by AI. Illustrating AI’s power, Sitharam shared an anecdote from the time he had just joined AICTE when he asked ChatGPT to summarise AICTE’s work and upon being presented with a long output, asked it to produce a short poem instead. “In 20 seconds, a beautiful poem was in front of me,” he recalled. “Skills once thought to require genes or decades of apprenticeship in poetic, musical or artistic composition can now be generated extremely quickly by AI. This is the danger. Every skill will be replaced by AI,” Sitharam warned.
The AICTE chairman announced that AICTE will participate in the ‘AI Impact Summit’ which he said will be held in February at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Sitharam singled out Pune’s contribution to digital public infrastructure (DPI), describing India’s DPI as a global exemplar that has redefined ‘numeral literacy’. He concluded by painting a vivid picture of people who cannot read or sign being empowered through digital tools to sell, collect payments, and participate in the formal economy; a social transformation enabled by accessible technology.
