Indian Constitution and Indian Culture to be part of Engineering Curriculum

There has been a new addition to the curriculum of Indian engineering studies. The revised curriculum has Indian constitution and Indian culture as part of it. According to new syllabus, it is mandatory for students to earn 12 credits in humanities, social sciences and management over the period of four years of the undergraduate program, except those at IITs and NITs. This change has been done to make students understand the value of Indian traditional knowledge.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulatory body for technical education in the country has notified that this change is only for undergraduate courses in engineering. According to sources from the board, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has also approved this addition. This will be adopted by over 3000 engineering colleges in the country.

Why is this change necessary?

Indranil Manna, professor of IIT Kharagpur said that this change is absolutely necessary as engineering is all about creating something which has some societal benefits. Unless we are aware of the society we cannot make changes in society. In IITs, almost one-third to one-fifth of the total credits are dedicated to humanities, social sciences, economics, and management in various forms to make students understand the value of Indian constitution and Indian culture.

Changes in the curriculum:

According to revised curriculum, it will be mandatory for students to earn 12 credits over the period of four years of the undergraduate program with a total of 150-160 credits from social sciences, humanities, and management. It is mandatory for engineering colleges to opt for a subject on the environment and have a paper either on Indian Constitution or Essence of Indian Traditional Knowledge.

In the present scenario, some institutes offer humanities and other similar courses but it is not compulsory for the students to opt for the same. After this revision, it will be mandatory for students to follow a holistic approach. The programs will have an interdisciplinary approach which will help in the overall development of students.

According to the new curriculum of AICTE, the theoretical classes will be brought down from 30 to 20 every week. This new curriculum will ensure that final-semester students can relax and do their project works and industrial training.