Can growth be sustained without tech education?

How will the foundation of a high growing economy of a state like Gujarat become strong if 70% seats of teachers in government polytechnics and engineering colleges remain vacant?

We have more than two dozen polytechnics and colleges, hardly two or three of them have full-time principles. Why so much indifference?

There are several arguments defending the current situation: there are not enough applicants, most students wish to become entrepreneurs rather than teachers after completing their education, and lastly students are able to learn on their own.

If for most technical trades, there are not even mechanics or technicians, isn't this an alarming situation? Come to think of it, if spending on consumables is not taking place (because of lack of technical trained manpower), will not planners and senior leaders of the department come to know of their problem?

Let me first clarify why none of these arguments are tenable. If we can get nurses, secretaries and several other professionals from other states, why can't we get teachers from other states as well (assuming that there is indeed a shortage of qualified teachers in the state). Further, what will be the employability of the students who are passing out of such a governance system? 

I think the youth of any society is the foundation on whose shoulders the future models of growth have to be built. But if these are the pathetic situations under which they complete their education, we cannot say that we are making an honest attempt to invest in their future.

One can say that those who really wanted to learn would go to private colleges. Does it imply that government institutions can thus absolve themselves of their responsibility of providing high quality education?

I am very pained to see the educational leaders' indifference to such a pathetic situation for quite a long time. I am sure brilliant minds in bureaucracy can find justification for any situation. But is this what the real challenge is?

The real challenge is to:

a) take steps immediately to fill all the vacancies without any further delay and get the best teachers from any part of the country (don't people from all over the country and the world buy products and services provided by Gujarati companies and entrepreneurs entirely on merit and competitiveness?)

b) upgrade the facilities and infrastructure as soon as possible so that students are imparted the latest skills in demand by Medium and Small Scale Industries (MSME) and other enterprises

c) create a library of video lectures on different subjects on a contractual arrangement with a network of high quality teachers who will answer the questions of the students if the same are not answered satisfactorily locally

d) engage industries to adopt different polytechnics and departments of  engineering colleges to strengthen their capacity, provide access to the students to their own workshops and mentors and

e) link the students, MSMEs and informal sector grassroots innovators through platforms like techpedia.in for creating innovation clusters.

Gujarat Technical University has taken several initiatives in this regard but many more need to be taken up. 

Recently, in a meeting of principles involving more than 80 polytechnics, I learnt many examples of students having done many creative experiments and innovations which I will talk about in the coming weeks. Therefore we cannot blame our youth for not doing enough.

It is our fault if we are not challenging our students enough about pending social and technological problems. 

I am very happy that GTU has planned in collaboration with techpedia.in about summer shodhyatra to do two things: a) benchmark the current level of energy and material efficiency to find local best practices b) identify the innovations in these clusters. 

But will policy makers deliver on societal expectation about high quality educational system?