Flashback: Before independence of the country, United Provinces was one of the best administered provinces of British India. The general standard of education in United provinces was considered the best in north of India and the other provinces drew inspiration from what was being done in U.P. English was taught from the earliest stages in primary schools and the medium of instruction was English in all secondary schools and colleges. The spread of technical and professional education was extremely limited at that time. There were no IITs or IIMs or AIIMSs and for that matter, the institutes of professional or higher learning, which we can see to-day in almost every town and nook and corner of the country. With independence in offing the process of development started getting attention. Main emphasis was on the development of infrastructure. Steel Plants, River Valley Projects, Roads, Railways and Communications were able to steal most of the priorities. First Five Year Plan was launched in 1951, but, the impact of planned development was still trying to pick up steam. In the meantime, Hindi was adopted as the official language of the state in U.P. in 1947 and the medium of instruction in schools was switched from English to Hindi. During the transition period sudden change of official language of the state and medium of instruction in schools had a tremendous impact on the quality of work in the administration and the input of students in places of post secondary learning. Under the context, the first batch of 400 students admitted to two year certificate course in civil engineering at Civil Engineering School Allahabad was a bundle of diverse talents and attainments and they needed extreme care and attention for unleashing their full potential and meeting their dreams and aspirations.
Differential teaching: The minimum qualification for admission to certificate courses in civil engineering was secondary school with english, science and mathematics. However, bulk of the students admitted in the first batch of Civil Engineering School Allahabad had qualified in high school examination and intermediate or higher examination with 60% or higher marks in english, science and mathematics. They were potentially very good and talented students and they had opted for admission to a certificate course in civil engineering, because substantial facilities for pursuing higher engineering and professional courses were not available in the country at that time. We marked them as excellent material for certificate course in civil engineering, but with potential for moving high up on the ladder. The strategy was to help them in concentration on all that was included in the prescribed syllabus and to inspire them to obtain high ranking marks in the examinations conducted by the board. At the same time, keeping an eye on their future, sufficient time and effort was provided to strengthen their base and fundamentals to enable them to crawl to higher levels. Another significant group of our students admitted by us had qualified in intermediate or higher examinations with less than 60% marks. We considered them also as good material for certificate courses in civil engineering and provided them with all the help, support and material to enable them to compete with high ranking students in the board’s examinations. The last group of students had passed High School with less than 60% marks. Our approach about them was to teach them in the language, which they understood and at a level, where they were reasonably comfortable. The emphasis was to concentrate on those areas which provided a sense of assurance to them to do well in the board’s examinations. All teaching and training material was accordingly tuned to meet the above concepts.
Teaching methods and materials: Lectures formed a major part of the contact hours of the students. That was the time, when suitable books and reading material was not readily available in the market. As such, lecture-wise write-ups were prepared for all subjects in simple language, which the students could conveniently comprehend. The teachers had to put in a lot of labour for the preparation of the write-ups, but that helped them in better communication in the class. The teachers were able to introduce the topics in the class briefly, which was followed by explanations and emphasis on basics and fundamentals, leaving sufficient time for the students to feel free and have fruitful interaction. Tutorials were provided in most of the subjects in groups of fifteen to twenty students. Tutorial sheets included the questions as also the steps for the solution of the questions. Better students, who were able to complete the tasks early, were encouraged to assist the teacher in helping the struggling students. For getting proper feed back and for preparing the students for the final examinations, two tests per week were provided in the regular timetable. That meant eight tests in a month. Since, there were eight subjects, every subject had a test by rotation every month. The tests were of two hours duration and were open book tests. The students were allowed to bring their books, write-ups or class notes with them and were free to consult them. They were also free to consult the teacher. The only restriction was that they could not consult each other. The system worked very well. Good students who came prepared, hardly needed to open their books, write-ups or notes. The students who were not prepared had sufficient material with them to keep them busy for two hours of the test.
Laboratory Practicals, Workshops and Fieldwork find a very important place in the curriculum of all engineering, technological and professional courses. The batches were of the order of 15 to 20 students and all possible effort was made to ensure that the group had sufficient jobs, apparatus, tools and equipment to facilitate the availability of ample opportunities to every student for handling the experiments or jobs in a relaxed manner.
Model Room and field trips: Civil Engineering is all about buildings, building materials and structures. Students coming out of the schools and colleges do not have any comprehension about the common building materials, building structures and the methods of construction. It is very difficult to provide proper visualization of all this in the class room. Studies in the model room and field trips go a long way in filling up the gaps. Earlier, during the process of development of physical facilities of the institution, we had been able to assemble a small group of skilled and talented workmen for the repairs and renovation of the buildings and for the fabrication of different types of furniture and fittings. We were able to retain a small group of these skilled and talented workmen to form a nucleus of the workforce for the fabrication of different types of indoor and outdoor models. Once the work picked up steam, the teachers started providing ideas and prints for the fabrication of models and most of the workmen found that their hands were always full and in the process, we were able to assemble a sizeable number of useful models.
Kunwar Balbir Singh: Kunwar Balbir Singh was an active member of the board of governors of Civil Engineerng School Allahabad. He was living at 2, Clive Road at Allahabad and could be seen walking briskly in the early hours of the morning. With the opening of Civil Engineering School Allahabad, the institution got the privilege of being included in his walking circuit. It became a common scene to see him in the institution in the morning hours, moving around the institution, chatting with the staff and students and sometimes sitting on the back-benches in class rooms or observing things keenly in the laboratories and workshops. He communicated informally with almost everybody. In spite of his extremely casual interaction, he seemed to be having his hands on the pulse of the people and sometimes his few words carried a lot of timely message.
Kunwar Balbir Singh was a retired chief engineer of irrigation department of U.P. He was a topper of 1910 batch of Thomason College of Civil Engineering Roorkee and was a member of Indian Service of Engineers, which was known as Secretary of State Service at that time. He had built a modest house on a spacious plot of land on Clive Road after his retirement and was living there with his family. His eldest son Rajendra Singh was a brilliant student with tremendous energy and aspirations. Rajendra Singh was working as a lecturer in Physics at the University of Allahabad in 1955 and at the same time he was also functioning as Sanchalak of Rashtriya Swyam Sewak Sangh responsible for the states of U.P. and Bihar. Since, Kunwar Balbir Singh was drawing retirement pension from Secretary of State Services, the government told him that it was not appropriate for him to keep his RSS son with him and that he should ask him to leave the house. The reply of Kunwar Balbir Singh to the government was that his son Rajendra Singh was not living with him and really speaking, due to his advanced age, he was living with his son Rajendra Singh. He added that, if the government feels that it is not proper for him to live with his son Rajendra Singh, the government may allot suitable accommodation to enable him to move away from his son.