There have been serious questions about whether the present education system is adequate for responding to today's business and technical changes. But with the emergence of certain engineering disciplines like environment, nuclear, aerospace and computers, it can be seen that the demand is being met, K. Karunakaran, Vice-Chancellor of Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore, said here on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the Rathinam Institute of Technology, he said that the institutions had not shown resistance in welcoming the changes and were in fact eager to accommodate the new growth areas.
The Vice-Chancellor added that this could be witnessed from the fact that many engineering colleges had applied for increase in intake in terms of number of students and also in number of courses. Out of the 193 colleges affiliated to Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore, 126 had applied for new courses.
“Educational institutions, being suppliers of technocrats, need to constantly align themselves to the needs of the industry. Industry too is modifying its demands or collaborating with the schools in an effort to improve the quality of the supply of young engineers,” the Vice-Chancellor said. The growing disparity in energy consumption in the country was increasing the divide between the rich and the poor, socially, economically and environmentally. Poverty was a major threat to social sustainability. Technology was considered to be a key player in reducing poverty. Also, areas such as science and technology, human resources, literacy drive, health care, infrastructure and energy security were important areas of focus for national development, Mr. Karunakaran said. This became significant from the fact that 72.2 per cent of the country's population lived in 6.36 lakh villages and the rest lived in town and urban settlements.
R. Prabakar, Secretary of Coimbatore Institute of Technology, and M. Padmanabhan, Director, Anna IAS Civil Service Coaching Centre of Bharathiar University, offered felicitations.
Madan A. Sendhil, Chairman of Rathinam Group, said the 60-acre campus comprised an arts and science college, institute of management, IT Park, an engineering college, and a Special Economic Zone that would go on steam in two to three months.
“A significant number of students from the arts and science colleges are working part-time within the campus in the IT Park. The same concept will be extended to the students of the engineering college too,” he said.
Published - August 04, 2011 12:01 am IST
