All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has revamped the curriculum for engineering and technical courses to meet the demands of the industry.
Under the revised curriculum, the number of credits required for theory has been reduced to 160 from 220. It has also been made mandatory that 14 out of 160 credits will be for summer internship.
The new curriculum was launched by Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday. He said, “Quality education is the only way to progress and we have taken various initiatives to give impetus to its growth.”
A senior official said, that the new curriculum focuses more on practical by engaging students with laboratory assignments rather than on theory.
According to Jadavekar, “The existing syllabus has been revamped by preparing a model curriculum as an updated curriculum is a student’s right.”
He said that inclusion of mandatory internship, both industry and social, will help the students understand the need of the industry and society, and the government is committed to provide the best teachers, infrastructure and scholarships to all the students.
Under the new curriculum, it will be compulsory for the students to intern in the industry for about 2-3 months, even during the summer vacation, to enable them acquire the skills required for job, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said.
This was being done considering complaints that nearly 60% of those passing out of technical education institutions are not industry-ready and still require honing, a senior official had said earlier.
Also, every student, on admission, would be put through a mandatory induction training to reinforce the fundamental concepts and the required language skills for technical education.
Affiliating universities were asked to constitute consultation committees and make suitable changes in curriculum every year.
PTI inputs