The Need Of Curriculum Reforms And Educational Challenges

The Indian education system is currently facing issues like the dearth of experienced teachers, up-gradation of the curriculum, and industrial experience. And hence, it requires a transformation in the approach and needs to imply changes like industry exposed professors and improving the curriculum w.r.t current trends across the globe.  

At 2nd BW BusinessWorld Engineering Excellence Conclave, Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies addressed the audience on the future of engineering education in India at Shangri-La, New Delhi.  

While addressing the audience Saxena brought the challenges that are being faced by the educational institutions. He said, “Currently issues like remaining relevant to the industry, quality of education imparted to the students, leadership, and making students employable are weakening the education industry”.  

On the lack of industrial exposure of the professors, Rajan said, “In the 1990s and early 2000s, our country was facing a dearth of professionally and industrially trained professors which led to the selection of recent graduates & post-graduates as professors in universities and colleges”. He further said, “Also, this cheaper option in the form of fresh professors helped the institutions to earn more money but their lack of industrial experience imparted only theoretical knowledge to the students which led to huge financial and developmental losses to the country”, and urged for the requirement of industrially trained professors for not just engineering but for all the educational disciplines.   

Further, Dr Saxena on the importance of knowledge said, “We need to improve the knowledge not just theoretical but also practical knowledge. Also, data is supreme, and students need to start understanding and categorizing the kind of information they require”.   

Honing the past experiences and mistakes Rajan said, “The change that we are witnessing today can be improved to multi-folds by learning from our past mistakes and working hard on the paths that brought success in the past”.