Looking back: Back in 1958, there were three polytechnics. Jodhpur Polytechnic was created by transfer of diploma classes from MBM Engineering College to Jodhpur Polytechinc in 1958. The building of Jodhpur Polytechnic was under construction and polytechnic was functioning from the campus of MBM Engineering College in 1958. Udaipur Polytechnic was established in 1957. The building of Udaipur Polytechnic was under construction and the first batch of the polytechnic was admitted at MBM Engineering College Jodhpur in 1957 and was shifted to Udaipur in 1958. Ajmer Polytechnic was established in 1958 at Ajmer. Principal of MBM Engineering College was the ex-officio Director of Technical Education and Chairman of the Board of Technical Education. He was assisted by a Deputy Director of Technical Education. Incidentally, from the very beginning the principals of Jodhpur, Udaipur and Ajmer Polytechnics and Deputy Director of Technical Education, started meeting at Jodhpur, Udaipur and Ajmer Polytechnics by rotation every quarter, for sorting out informally all the academic, administrative and financial problems related to the working of Polytechincs, Directorate of Technical Education and Board of Technical Education. That also provided an opportunity to the Principals and Deputy Director of Technical Education to have a close look at the institutions and for the development of fraternal relations with the teaching staff of institutions. Kota Polytechnic came up in 1960 and Bikaner and Alwar Polytechics followed in 1961. However, the tradition of quarterly meetings of principals of polytechnics and deputy director of technical education continued. The involvement of the institutions in the consultation and decision process was of considerable help in the development and growth of technical education in Rajasthan.
For a period of six months during 1963 and1964 I had an opportunity to hold charge of the office of Deputy Director of Technical Education in the absence of SP Datta, the incumbent deputy director, who was on a study tour of USA. That provided me with an opportunity to visit all polytechnics and industrial training institutes of the state and to get into intimate contact with the principals, superintendents, staff and students of polytechnics and. Industrial Training Institutes.
Technical institutions: Engineering Colleges, Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes are technical institutions with a tremendous potential. Between them, they provide technical manpower, which runs the wheels of all industrial and commercial establishments and engineering departments of the state. There is a continuous cry from all employers at all times, that, there is an acute shortage of trained personnel with requisite knowledge and job skills for manning the fast growing manpower requirements of their establishments. At the same time, a large number of budding youngsters leaving the portals of most of the technical institutions
are finding it increasingly difficult to land on jobs, where they can hope to find opportunities to hone their knowledge and skills and unleash their potential. It is a peculiar situation.No institution can train students, who may be able to meet the specific job requirements of different categories of establishments from day one and the establishments do not expect a raw trainee to perform in the production environment of their establishment without their active involvement and support. It is a two way process. The institutions and the establishments have to work in tandem to ensure that the trainees are equipped with requisite knowledge and skills and are physically fit and are mentally prepared to handle all types of challenging jobs in industrial and commercial establishments. If the trainees get a congenial environment, help and support during their training period in the industry, their adjustment and acclimatization in the working environment of the establishment is smooth and productive.
Meeting of Principals of Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes: I had assumed charge of the office of Director of Technical Education on 5 July 1975, thereafter, the first meeting of the principals of Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes of the state was held at Jodhpur on July 11 and July 12, 1975. There were six principals of polytechnics, four principals of industrial training institutes and ten superintendents of industrial training institutes. Everybody was known to each other and the homely environment during the meeting, turned it into an informal get-together. All of them were heads of institutions, who were handling the affairs of the institutions in some of the most difficult times. Each one of the principals and superintendents had time to speak about the problems in general and problems of their institutions in particular and were happy to find positive response from everybody. The homely environment of the meeting was like a puff of fresh air and looked like a call for pushing ahead and doing something and doing something better.
Teaching staff: The teaching staff of institutions is the backbone of all institutions. For the institutions to develop, all members of the teaching staff have to go through a continuous process of academic and professional upgradation. Therefore, doors for academic and professional upgrdation were opened for all members of the teaching staff of polytechnics and industrial training institutes.
Polytechnics: Instructors and demonstrators of polytechnics, who were engineering diploma holders were encouraged to pursue further studies for engineering degree courses. The lecturers, heads of departments and principals of polytechnics, who were engineering graduates were encouraged to go in for post graduate studies in engineering. At the same time, the teachers were liberally sponsored for industrial training, quality improvement programmes, summer courses and seminars to enable them to have reasonable appreciation of the professional needs and environment of the industrial and commercial establishments.
Industrial training institutes all instructors who had not passed secondary or higher secondary examination were encouraged to go in for these courses. A lateral entry was provided to the certificate holders of industrial training institutes to join three year diploma courses in engineering in second year. This provided great encouragement and incentive to instructors of industrial training institutes for upgradation of their qualifications. Moreover, all instructors were regularly sponsored for advanced skills training at Central Training Institute for instructors at Calcutta.
Books and readable reference material: Polytechnics: Suitable books and readable reference material was not available to the students of polytechnics at that time. The teachers used to dictate notes in the classes. Semester system was in vogue in the polytechnics. We initiated the process of producing write ups for courses covered by a subject in a semester. Formal guidelines and general format were prepared. Course content covered in a semester was divided into 30 lectures. Two teachers of each subject were picked up for preparing write ups for 15 lectures each in the prescribed format. Subsequently, the teachers made presentations of their lectures to eight to ten lecturers of their subject in the seminar hall of the directorate. Thereafter, the final script was prepared after incorporating significant changes and suggestions and proper vetting and editing. Those were the days, when printers and photo copiers were not available. Therefore, stencils were cut and sufficient copies were printed in the directorate for distribution to the students of polytechnics, through their co-operatives at a nominal rate of rupee one for a semester subject and rupees two for a subject which was spread over two consecutive semesters. Twenty six such sets of write ups or manuals were prepared and made available to the students.
Industrial training institutes: The written work in industrial training institutes is extremely limited. Bulk of the time in an ITI is utilized for practical work. Theoretical notes about the trade are dictated by the instructors. Basic calculations relevent to the trade are taken by a mathematics teacher. We picked up some trades for the preparation of trade wise manuals. Scripts were prepared on the lines of some of the printed manuals issued by the directorate general of employment and training Thereafter, seminars were arranged trade wise at the directorate for the instructors. Subsequently, the final scripts were prepared in the light of responses of the instructors and proper vetting and editing, which was followed by the cutting of stencils and printing in the directorate. The copies of the manuals were distributed free to the students, through the institutions.
Conclusion: There is tremendous scope for the staff and students of technical institutions to involve themselves in all types of innovative and developmental activities of the institutions. When, the teachers and students start rubbing shoulders with each other and involve themselves in different types of innovative and challenging jobs in the institution, the institution grows and in the process, the staff as also the students grow and get into the habit of seeking challenging jobs.