Hyderabad: Engineering colleges in Telangana are likely to introduce a ‘Practice School’ programme that provides opportunities to students to use concepts learnt in the classroom in real life situations. The programme also aims at sensitizing students to workplace behaviour with them performing time bound tasks and projects as would be the case if they were employees in a company.
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University which oversees engineering education in the State is actively considering introduction of the programme from next year, IT, Industries and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao said on Monday. Germany has a similar programme and it should be introduced in the engineering curriculum here, he said.
“IT is no longer about Information Technology. The time has come to redefine it as ‘Intelligence Technology’,” Mr Rama Rao said.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the four-day 7th International Conference on Transfor-mations in Engineering Education here in the city at Anurag Group of Institutions Campus at Venkatapur.
Mr Rama Rao listed various initiatives launched by the State Government to strengthen engineering education including the Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge which has so far trained 2.9 lakh students and trained 5,070 faculty members in various skill sets. TASK arose from complaints from the industry which pointed out the need for skill sets among students seeking employment. “TASK will expand its foot print to tier-2 and 3 cities like Warangal, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, and Nalgonda,” he said.
The Telangana Government is committed for quality in all stages of education. The state has 220 Engineering colleges with an intake of 1.2 lakh students in various streams. The government had to make some tough calls to stem deterioration of engineering education standards in the State. “We appointed a committee and inspected the standards. It was a tough call. But our surprise the number of colleges have not come down drastically,” he said.
Referring to Hyderabad, he said the city is now not just know for its IT services but also as a hub for electronics manufacturing, emerging technologies, defence and aerospace sectors. “Our vision is to foster innovation driven economy in Telangana,” Mr Rama Rao said.
Education Minister Sabita Indira Reddy, MLC and chairman of Anurag Group of Institutions Dr Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, deputy director, AGI and conference chair Dr. G. Vishnu Murthy, executive director of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Dr Michael Mulligan were among those who addressed the event.
